Text: Scripture Reading: John 4:3-30, 39-42
The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well is one of the high points of John’s gospel. Included in this conversation is a priceless revelation concerning true worship.
Jesus was concerned about a certain village of people that needed salva¬tion.
The people were a despised group — Samaritans, half- breed Jews. They were rejected by society, both Jewish and Gentile. But they were not rejected by Jesus!
They needed him, so "he had to go through Samaria" (John 4:4 NIV) . Most Jews travelled around that region, but Jesus felt compelled to go there.
How can we reach a village with salvation?
One way would be for someone to be saved who could witness to the rest. This is the method Jesus chose.
Although this was a casual contact, it was not an accident.
This woman, so frustrated in seeking true love, and immoral in conduct, came to the com¬munity well at high noon.
No doubt she was lonely and empty. Certainly she did not dream that a miracle was about to happen — and to her!
This encounter did not take place in a hushed, sacred setting, but in Samaria of all places, and to a woman whose life was jaded with moral sin!
But then, this is the glory and beauty of God’s truth: It knows no limit of time or place or person.
It is revealed to those who are ready to receive it, whoever they are and wherever they are.
So by God’s Spirit the truth was revealed to this Samaritan woman.
Actually, she tried to change the subject as Jesus began to probe deeply into her life.
The popular evasive question in her day seemed to have been, "Where is the proper place to worship—in Jerusalem or on this sacred mountain in Samaria?"
Jesus did not ignore the question.
He used it as a springboard from which to reveal to her the real definition of worship, the pattern for all true worship.
Jesus spoke about manmade worship and then Jesus told the woman about a God-centred worship.
I. First of all, Jesus spoke about manmade worship.
Three basic weaknesses of manmade worship are revealed in Jesus’ words to the woman.
Manmade worship is artificial.
It is the result of people adding a little here and taking away a little there until they have turned the Scriptures into a monstrosity.
This is what the Samaritans had done in their insistence that true worship must be conducted on Mount Gerizim
They had adjusted history to suit themselves by insisting that it was on this mountain that Abraham had been willing to sacrifice Isaac, and that it was here that Abraham had paid tithes to Melchizedek.
Further¬more, they tampered with the Scriptures themselves when they taught that it was on this mountain that Moses first built an altar and sacrificed to God in preparation for the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 27:4 clearly states that it was Mount Ebal, not Mount Gerizim.
Every cult has done this same thing in twisting and distorting the Scriptures.
A contrived gospel is a false gospel and will lead people to destruction.
Not only is manmade worship artificial; it is also ignorant of the truth.
Jesus said to this woman there in John 4:22, ’You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship”
The Samaritans accepted only the Pentateuch.
They rejected all of the great messages of the prophets and all of the beauty and inspiration of the Psalms.
They had a partial revelation of the truth,
and a fuller revelation was available to them,
but they would not accept it.
They chose to remain in spiritual darkness.
There is no excuse today for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to be igno¬rant of what they believe or of the basic teachings of God’s Word.
There was a time when people were ignorant of spiritual things because they did not have the full revelation of God.
But that time is no more;
Jesus has come and has revealed God’s true nature to us.
We have the com¬pleted Word of God
with the ministry of the Holy Spirit available to inter¬pret it to us.
So manmade worship is artificial and ignorant of the truth it is also superstitious.
The Samaritans had adulterated the pure worship of Jehovah by recognizing the pagan gods of the foreigners who had come to dwell among them.
They had mixed in with their worship of Jehovah all of the superstitions of the pagans.
You know, many Christians have allowed superstition to become a basic part of their worship.
Some will attend church, not out of a genuine sense of need,
nor out of any real desire to meet God in a worship experience, but because they are afraid not to!
They feel that, if they do not go through the motions of worship, something bad will happen to them.
They may even contribute to the church and pay tithes because they are afraid some calamity will befall them if they don’t.
That is worship out of fear (not reverential fear), and such an attitude is the same as superstition.
A true worship experi¬ence is motivated by love for God and by gratitude for what God has done in our life and family.
II. Jesus spoke about manmade worship then Jesus told the woman about a God-centred worship.
In telling the Samaritan woman about a God-centred worship, Jesus gave her the eternal formula for true worship:
Look at John 4:23-24 - " But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him.
God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. “
A. The first thing Jesus said about worship is that it is God-initiated.
God makes the first move toward people in establishing a true worship experience.
People do not have to seek after God or beg and plead with him to meet them in worship.
This is what the prophets of Baal did on Mount Carmel in that famous contest with Elijah. They begged and cried and worked themselves up into a hysterical state
—finally cutting themselves and shedding their own blood in their fanatical frenzy
— trying to attract and coerce Baal to hear them and answer their call.
But what did Jesus say? "The Father seeks those who worship him in spirit and in truth"
People do not seek God; God seeks people.
In other words, privately or publicly when we come together, God is waiting, eager to meet us!
He is seeking us, to enter into the worship experience with us.
B. But not only is God-centered worship initiated by God, it is a spiritual experience.
Look at John 4:24 again. "God is a Spirit," said Jesus, "and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth"
What do we mean when we say that "God is a spirit"?
Is he a vague, impersonal, ethereal being, indescribable to man? Not at all!
Because he is Spirit, he is free; he is not con¬fined to any one place or time.
For thirty-three years, in a mystical union we cannot fully comprehend, God entered human flesh in the person of his sinless Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then, in an even greater mira¬cle, God died in the person of his Son and rose again the third day to conquer death and pay the price for our sin.
But even during that amazing time of identification with man, God was still omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
Because God is spirit, his omnipresence makes it possible for me to worship him anytime anywhere.
In the privacy of my room, I can worship God; in the midst of the mundane affairs of the everyday world, I can worship God.
I can anticipate the blessed privilege of meeting with my brothers and sisters in Christ at the appointed times,
as we are exhorted to do in the Scriptures,
and enter into an experience of corporate worship.
In the midst of the rarest fellowship in the world
— the koinōnia koy-nohn-ee’-ah of the people of God
I can blend my voice both audibly and silently in the midst of the congregation!
Yes, God-centered worship is a spiritual experience that is expressed both privately and within the blessed togetherness of God’s people.
C. Not only are we to worship in spirit, but also in truth.
In his great high-priestly prayer, Jesus invoked the Father on our behalf, and his prayer recorded in John 17 was:
" Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth." (John 17:17).
I cannot read God’s Word properly without having a worship experience every time I do.
For as I tune my heart to read his Holy Book, the Holy Spirit begins to open my understanding.
God’s Word, which is the truth of God,
is the compass of the church.
It keeps both the individual Christian and the church as a whole in the pathway of righteousness, always attuned to the leadership of its head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And not only that, but when I neglect God’s Word, I find that I grope through my days, stum¬bling here and faltering there, unsure at this point, blundering at that decision.
Only as I make my way back to the Book and to prayer in sincere worship do I find my life once more on an even keel.
A question, What is the worship of the church?
If it is a manmade worship,
it is bathed in ignorance of the true message of God’s Word, and it is permeated with all kinds of false ideas and superstitions.
But!
But, if it is God-centred wor¬ship, then it is always initiated by God.
He is ever seeking his children - to enter into a worship experience with them.
It is spiritual experience that tran¬scends the earthly, the mundane, the worldly; and it is Bible-centred, because God’s Word is truth.
Worship is genuine when God’s people find a friendship and an intimacy with Him, who ever seeks us and longs to have fel¬lowship with His redeemed people.
Let’s look at the passage again.
As I said earlier this encounter did not take place in a hushed, sacred setting, but in Samaria of all places, and to a woman whose life was jaded with moral sin!
The glory and beauty of God’s truth is revealed to those who are ready to receive it,
whoever they are and wherever they are.
And God’s truth was revealed to this Samaritan woman.
There’s five “C’s” I would like us to briefly consider about this encounter:
I. Curiosity.
II. Craving
III. Conviction
IV. Conversion
V. Confession
I. Curiosity aroused (John 4:4-14).
The woman was full of curiosity.
And I think as she stood there would have been many questions running through her mind.
Why?
Why would this Jew travel through Samaria?
Why would he talk to her?
For a rabbi to talk to a woman in public was a violation of custom. And to talk to a sinful Samaritan woman was totally taboo.
But Jesus broke the racial and social barriers because all people are equally impor¬tant to him, and he wants to save all.
What?
What was this living water?
Jesus certainly spoke truthfully when he said that water from the community well would satisfy thirst only tem¬porarily.
But his water would stop thirst forever.
Living water?
What was that?
Who?
Who is this man?
"Are you greater than our father Jacob?" she asked (v. 12).
Her curiosity was aroused.
Many are curious about Jesus.
The offer he makes of eternal life intrigues them.
Does your transformed life, from your trust in Jesus make your unsaved friends wonder if Jesus could do the same in their life too?
II. Craving awakened (John 4:15).
"Sir, give me this water."
The woman’s soul desired something that satisfied.
She could have understood his meaning.
She seemed to have some under¬standing of the Scriptures, and the term living water could have had a meaning for her.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Psalms, and Zechariah all used it to refer to salvation and messianic blessings.
Her words "That I may not thirst, nor come here to draw"
may have been words of jesting or sarcasm to cover her deep craving for salvation.
Her craving for life was unexpected.
The people of the village expected noth¬ing good of her.
No one dreamed that she would have a hunger for cleansing and salvation.
III. Conviction felt (John 4:16-24).
Her sinfulness was revealed.
When craving for forgiveness awakens,
then sinfulness must be revealed.
For no salvation comes until we deal with our sins and confess our guilt and need.
When reluctant to repent, conviction can convulse a soul.
Jesus knew this woman needed to face herself as a sinner, so he said, "Go, call your husband, and come here" (v. 16).
He then informed her that he knew she had been mar¬ried five times and now lived with a man who was not her husband.
Her escape from admittance of sin was blocked.
She tried to change the sub¬ject to religion rather than her sins.
She wanted to discuss where people should worship, but Jesus talked about how people worship. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (v.24).
IV. Conversion experienced (John 4:25-26).
"Christ: when he comes.... "As the woman heard Jesus tell her that the way to God did not depend on place or race, but upon the heart, she thought about the promised Saviour, the Christ.
Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah, the Christ.
"I that speak unto thee am he." Jesus is the one who shows us the Father. He is the way. The woman’s reaction now must be to more than a Jewish man or even a prophet she was in the very presence of the promised Saviour. C.
She forgot her thirst and even her waterpot.v28 “She left her waterpot and went her way into the city”
Her inner thirst had to be satisfied.
V. Confession expressed (John 4:28-29).
This woman was unashamed to talk about the one who had revealed her sins.
She challenged the townspeople with the question, "Could this be the Christ?"
Her confession was powerful in effect.
The men of the city came out to see and hear Jesus for themselves.
As a result, many believed in him – look at (w. 41-42).
" And many more believed because of His own word. And they said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of your saying, for we have heard Him ourselves and know that this is truly the Christ, the Savior of the world. "
Every person,
whether they recognise it or not,
is thirsty for the liv¬ing water - salvation from sin.
Everyone desires the fountain of eternal life.
But it is available only in Jesus Christ.
If we are curious enough to recognize and confess sin and guilt, and have faith to experience salvation,
then it will be natural to confess Christ as Saviour and Lord.
The salva¬tion of this woman shows the pattern for the conversion of all who need to be saved.
We come to church… surrounding by the ocean of “Living Water”
We can buy Men’s Study Bibles, Women Bibles, Devotional Teen Bibles and we are thirsty.
We can buy Christian stickers and t-shirts; go to the Christian bookshop regularly. Thirsty.
We come to church sing the songs that quench our souls listen to the Scripture that waters our lives and we still are thirsty!
We walk thru a Coca Cola culture of opportunity with a Sahara desert soul?
Why?
Why can’t we drink from the well that never runs dry.
Why are our souls shrivelled and dehydrated?
Thirst is one of the most powerful spiritual symbols in all of scripture.
As dehydration draws the whole of our physical being to a longing for water, so a spiritual void will draw our spirits into a search for deeper meaning for our lives.
The Psalmist expressed it this way, "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." Psalm 42:1-
You see, before we can really have a close relationship with God, we’ve got to thirst for God. I mean we’ve got to thirst like the Psalmist .
We’ve got to cry out as David cried out…"God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1).
We must come to a point where we can get before God and say, "I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land" (Psalm 143:6).
We will never have a close relationship with God until we thirst after Him.
That is why Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."
We must capture that type of spiritual thirst!
We must thirst and long for God and for spiritual living!
Isaiah gives the promise in 58:11 “ The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fails.
Are you thirsty?
Are you thirsty for God?
Then friends,
just come to Jesus and drink,
and He will fill you until you overflow and become a river of living water that will bless others as well.
His invitation has one requirement
Come whoever is thirsty!!!
