What Jesus Did About Seeking Sinners
John 4:1-15
This particular incident in the Life of Christ has come to be accepted as the ultimate example of skillful soul winning. For those who desire to learn to be effective and fruitful soul winners, studying and understanding this true story is essential. Many books, tracts and tapes have been published about the best Biblical methodology of soul winning. Some of these materials have been widely disseminated, accepted and placed into practice with good results. But the basic principles found in this account of the Master soul winner bringing one soul to a saving knowledge of His love and grace, underlies all scriptural and successful soul winning plans. Let us examine some obvious facts found in this passage about our Saviour Seeking Sinners and Winning Souls.
JESUS’ MINISTRY FOCUSED UPON SEEKING, SAVING AND DISCIPLING SINNERS. This encounter with the woman at the well was clearly just a continuation of His extensive ministry of making and baptizing disciples. It seems that after His baptism by John and His calling of the apostles to be the foundation of that first New Testament Church of immersed believers he began to establish along the shores of Galilee, He immediately began to preach, teach and reach others with His message of Messiahship and salvation for those who would truly believe. It is also clear that those who were saved were then immediately baptized and called to be His disciples, learning the all things He would speak of later from the very lips of God incarnate in the flesh. Even the opposing pharisees recognized the great success of the soul winning and discipling efforts of the Master and the Master’s men.
Our ministry today should have the same focus. We even have the example of the Master soul winner to follow. We see his concern and compassion demonstrated when he left the safety and comfort of the familiar beaten paths and ventured far into the dangerous country of the despised Samaritans. Forgoing physical food and drink, He sought the ultimate spiritual blessing of guiding a poor lost soul into the kingdom of God! He tells his followers he had feasted upon spiritual food and drink that they knew not of. It might be good to ask ourselves how many of those He has called to be winners of souls have ever really personally sampled the spiritual food of which He speaks?
JESUS SOUGHT SINNERS WHERE THEY WERE. In our day and time it is difficult to understand the significance of the action of Jesus in going by this well in Samaria. Such wells were very important in the mid-Eastern culture of that day. As seen in the dialogue that follows between the Savior and a sinner, this well had an even great significance for both the Jews and Samaritans. It had been dug many centuries earlier by their common forefather, Jacob.
This well was also a central gathering place for the town folks of the little town of Sychar. Since they did not have newspapers and mass media, this was a place for gathering and getting the latest gossip and news of the day. We know that orthodox Jews just didn’t mix and mingle in such places with such despised and idolatrous people. They saw them as being just about as low as dogs.
Jesus’ decision to stop and share the gospel with anyone who might have been at the well surely shows His personal concern for sinners in their natural worldly habitat. It seems He did not expect them to come to the synagogues or the temple to hear an official proclamation of the Word of God. It would also seem He did not rely upon seeker services with new kinds of tools or clever methodology or manipulation either. He simply came alongside a sordid and sorry sinner and showed His love and concern for a single soul. What a great example for us today.
The story is told of a life saving station crew on a rock, stormy, shore hearing the sound of an S.O.S. on a terrible stormy night. As the crew made preparations to go to sea, a young crewman spoke up with a tremble of fear in his voice, "Captain, don’t you think the waters are too rough and winds too fierce for us to go out tonight?"
The Captain answered, "We must go! There is a ship in distress. The orders have come to go!" "But," the lad objected, "We may not come back," The captain replied, "Young man, we have not been commanded to come back . We have been commanded to go!"
Our main task is to get out the message of Christ gave us, no matter what the cost or price to be paid or response encountered. There can be no doubt that we have been commanded to go out into our dark, stormy and dangerous world with the vital and life saving message of the gospel. I do not know of one verse of scripture that says, "sit and I’ll sit with you." I know of no passage in the Bible that indicates that the lost sinner is obligated to row to where we are to hear the life saving message of the gospel. I have not seen even one verse that teaches or implies that a lost sinner has a primary responsibility to go to a Worship Service, Bible Study or any other church function to hear the gospel and be saved. But saved sinners are again and again reminded of their primarily responsibilty to SEEK SINNERS WHERE THEY ARE.
JESUS SOUGHT SINNERS WHEN HE COULD. Why did our Savior go by this well at midday? Surely our omniscient Savior knew His timing was opportune and critical. The culture of those days was similar to mid-Eastern culture today. Respectable women just didn’t go to such a place alone in the middle of the day. They normally came in groups or were escorted early in the morning or late in the evening to draw water.
We cannot be absolutely sure, but it would seem she may have had other motives. It is later revealed in the dialogue that she is a woman of ill repute. It does not seem unreasonable to assume she may have come alone at this hour because she was seeking a man. She may well have been plying her trade in practice of the oldest profession in the world.
Some have also speculated that she came alone because of embarrassment. Perhaps she dreaded an encounter with those who might shun and shame her. This may be indicated in her eager response to the Savior’s probing questions about what was she really seeking in life. Even the most depraved sinners sometimes long for a more settled life. They sense that sin does not really satisfy. They long for a source of security and eternal well being. Even though few know it or would admit it, they need an encounter with Christ at the well of life.
Those who have been involved in winning souls for any period of time soon come to understand that timing is of essence. There is no other life situation in which the saying, "Seize the moment," is more appropriate or important. We can surely say that we should seize every opportunity to share Christ. Many pastors can speak of being urgently led to share with someone who would soon go to meet their Maker, even though they had no idea this was the case at the time. Some are saved as one of the thieves on the cross; others even reject Him on their death bed. But even so, as watchmen on the walls of our world are hands are clean of such blood. But if we do not sound the warning cry, it is not so.
When Paul said, "We then, [as] workers together [with him], beseech [you] also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now [is] the accepted time; behold, now [is] the day of salvation.)" (II Cor. 6:1-2); he was speaking more to the servants Christ about the need to witness than to the lost about their need of salvation.
Oh, how we need to follow the Savior’s here. We need to lift up our eyes to the fields that are white already unto harvest. We need to pray to the Lord of the harvest that He might today send laborers into His harvest. After all, He said we should work because the night is coming when no man can work in His vineyard. A number of His parables speak to the urgency of our soul winning task. But we cannot sincerely pray about the harvest unless we are also willing to say right now with Isaiah, "Here am I, send me!" Or cry out as Paul did on the road to Damascus, "Lord, what would you have me to do?"
Someone once said, "Eyes that look are common, but eyes that see are rare." Someone else has said, "If we talked more to the Lord about sinners, then we might be able to talk to more sinners about the Lord." Perhaps we should pray again for an Acts 20:20 vision. A concern for our lost neighbors that would drive us to our knees for the souls of those around us and the raise us to our feet and place us on the path to our neighbor’s house with the good news of the gospel.
JESUS SOUGHT SINNERS AS THEY WERE. Just why did Jesus determine to go through Samaria? The story has a great sense of the urgency He obviously felt. "He must needs go through Samaria." (John 4:4) Although the route He took from Judea to Galilee was a more direct way, the Jews normally avoided it like a plague. They not only had no direct dealings with Samaritans, they would not even place their feet upon paths and places they felt had been polluted by Samaritan feet.
If there is one fact made plain in this incident it is that Jesus went and sat down on the well curb in Samaria because He knew this lost woman of Samaria needed Him and His salvation. But as things are worked out we can also see He knew that the whole city of Samaria needed to be saved and that this woman could be His witness there. It would not be presumptuous or in opposition to the teachings of the scriptures to assert that from the very beginning of all things it must have been God’s plan for her to encounter the Water of Life that day in that place. There is surely no luck nor are there any accidents in God’s eternal plan and purpose.
It is not significant that when Jesus told His followers to be witnesses in the world He spoke of Samaria being a priority, after Jerusalem and Judea? Consider also the overwhelming success and great revival experienced there when Phillip went there to preach the gospel, win souls and disciple them. Could Phillip’s spiritual success be at least partially attributed to this earlier soul winning effort of our Savior and the subsequent witness of the woman at the well and of those who came to know Jesus as Savior at that time?
We have just returned from a trip to West Wyalong and Campbelltown, New South Wales. I must confess that as I fellowshipped with these great people, my thoughts went back to some thirty-five or so years ago when we first arrived in Australia. I recalled the first souls who came to know the Lord there and the hundreds that were saved and baptized over the next twenty years and onward. Then I thought of their children, grandchildren, relatives, neighbors and friends who have also been saved. I thought of the thirty or so different lands from which they came in order for God to give them the glorious message of salvation. I thought of the many places some have moved on to since. As I looked around, I thought of the Christian School and the other churches that have come out of that church. I thought of the lives that had been changed by the grace of God and the effects of the gospel upon so many in so many different ways.
Just why did this happen? Just how did God bring it to pass? He laid it upon our hearts , "That we must needs go to Australia . ." He laid it upon the hearts of mission minded folks that they must send us. I say none of this in a manner of boasting. I simply say it to testify of what God can do with just one ordinary person even in our world today. I say it to encourage others to consider what God might want to do with their lives in Australia and other places. As the Samaritans, we live in the midst of the greatest mission field on earth.
Yes, Jesus went through Samaria because there was a great need there. This need focused upon one lost sinner who desperately need to be saved. Her need became so obvious. Even though Jesus lovingly used great tact in His approach, He did not hesitate to point out to the woman that she was a great sinner before God. He witnessed to her the way she was. It has been said that before a person can be saved we must get them lost. Of course, as this woman, they are already lost. But we must, as our Savior, not hesitate to point out their sinful condition and their need for real repentance and a personal Savior. To do any less would be less than loving. Paul made this clear when he said, "This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." I Tim. 1:15)
It is clearly easier to reach a such an obviously sorry sinner than to reach a religious and self-righteous sinner who feels he has no need for a Savior or salvation. Paul spoke of this when he said of the Jewish Pharisees: "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." (Ro. 10:2-3)
It is said that Charlotte Elliot, the writer of the grand old hymn, ’Just As I Am." had to be convinced by a soul winner that she was a sinner but that Christ would accept her just as she was. After she was saved, she wrote these inspiring words: "Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!"
JESUS SOUGHT SINNERS IN A SOUL WINNING WAY. Just look closely at His approach to this woman. He speaks to her about in an ordinary way about a common interest. He simply asks for a drink of water. What a simple, yet clever, approach. He uses common sense and tactfulness. He immediately makes a vital personal connection with her at a level she can identify with. He thus lays the basis for speaking to her about eternal things and her eternal soul.
it is very important to always remember this when we are sharing with others. It is all too common for those who are really concerned about someone to begin by trying to convince them their own religion is wrong and convict them of the need to change it.
All too often we give the wrong impression. When we focus upon the idea that people need to come to our church or need to accept our religion as a way to God, we are playing into Satan’s hand. All too often we who go door to door for Jesus may seem to indicate, either by implication or omission, that we are there merely to get someone to come to church, participate in a religious activity or consider a different religion. When the confused lost soul closes the door in our face with words such as, "I have my own religion," the result all too often permanently precludes any possibility of returning again to ask the right question, "Do you know Jesus as your personal Savior?" , or "Do you know for sure you have eternal life?"
Tactfulness is critical. The story is told of a barber being saved one night when a soul winner came to his home. He was thrilled to know he had eternal life and, like this woman, could not wait to share it with someone else. The next day his first customer sat down in the barber’s chair and asked for a shave. The barber lathered the man’s face, sharpened his old straight razor on his big leather strap. As he raised the razor for the first stroke he blurted out, "Are you sure you are ready to die?" Suffice it to say his first soul winning effort ended in disaster.
JESUS SOUGHT SINNERS TO SEE THEM TRULY SAVED. Later in His ministry He would say, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (:Luke 19:10) He would give three successive stories using a lost coin, a lost sheep and a lost prodigal to illustrate the purpose of His mission to earth. While using these illustrations He would emphasize the focus of His mission to us by saying, " Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." (:Luke 15:10)
It is clear that Jesus did not hesitate to focus upon this woman’s lostness and her great need for a Savior. He said, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." It seems she is thirsty but does not know the real reason or real remedy for her thirst. In order to assuage her thirst our Savior must first increase it to the point she is willing to cry out, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not."
But at this point it seems she still does not fully understand that her real need is spiritual. She is like so many in seeking a solution in satisfying the temporal desires of life. Just like the crowd who were fed with the loaves and fishes, she’s more than ready to receive a free handout. But as they, she does not yet understand about the Bread of Life and Water of Life.
Is this not the situation in our world today as well? Aren’t people looking for such simple short term solutions to life’s complex problems? Do they not also say, "I’m just like Jimmy, I’ll take all you gimmee.."? Could this be the explanation for the increasing popularity of new age religions and the quick fix feel good philosophical solutions offered by the gurus of our day? Could it be the reason for the popularity and proliferation of so many different cults? Could it be they are appealing to man’s natural spiritual thirst with the wrong water?
The question of what a Christian is or is not seems to be one of the most misunderstood and confusing of all, especially in the babel of voices that bombard us every day of our lives from the world of cults and false religions. It is really sad that one of the major sources of such confusion is the voice of traditional Christian religion that seems to cry out that man can be justified before God in so many ways, except the right Way.
In order to reach down into her soul and extract the cancer of sin that afflicts her, Jesus first must bluntly point out her sin. His probing question about her husband ultimately results in her confession of an adulterous life. But first she changes the subject. She starts to speak of her ancestral religion. But Jesus will not accept her false claim to have communion with God.
This is still the way of the lost world. In essence they wish to change the subject and speak of something else. After all, they have been taught that their imagined connection with God through their religion makes them acceptable in His sight. Is it any wonder we find the lost confused and unwilling to seek or hear the truth about knowing and having Jesus Christ as personal Savior? Just as this woman, they have come to depend upon their religion. They have so often been told that their religious pedigree or persuasion automatically makes them a Christian. That if they have been christened, confirmed or taken communion they have some institutionally guaranteed access to heaven. Add to that man’s natural prideful propensity to rely upon his own imagined good works and self-righteousness, and you have a real recipe for eternal disaster!
JESUS SEEKS AND SAVES SINNERS THAT THEY MIGHT SEEK SINNERS TOO. The real climax of this soul winning encounter is found in these words, "The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am [he]" It has often been said that the soul winner’s task is to personally introduce people to Jesus Christ as Savior. It is clear she had heard of the coming Messiah. Perhaps as a child she had heard the scriptures read or had heard talk of Him by her people or others who longed for His promised coming. We need to also understand that there are those who really long to be right with God today. Perhaps there are hearts at your work place or in your neighborhood thirsting for the Water of Life.
Finally, this sinful woman has her life opened to the love of God in Jesus Christ. Her heart opens up and His Spirit enters and completely transforms her life. Just as in the case of Saul who became Paul, her life is radically changed. Just as in the case of the mad man of Gadara, she becomes a new spiritual creature. She just runs right off and leaves her valuable and essential water pot sitting by the well. Her thirst has been eternally quenched and she can’t wait to share her joy and happiness with others.
Perhaps leaving her water pot symbolizes leaving the old life behind. She becomes a soul winner by simply giving her testimony to those she knows and loves. She wants them to also know the joy unspeakable and full of glory and have the peace that passes understanding. She doesn’t want any of them to be eternally separated from God in hell but has a great desire that they might have the eternal life she has found in Christ.
The people hear and heed her witness and hurry out to the well and find a personal Savior too. "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word;" (John 4:39-41) This is the way it should be. Jesus seeks and saves us that we might seek sinners to be saved too.
We do not have to guess the message Jesus means for us to get from this soul winning encounter. When His disciples return they cannot seem to understand what has happened. They are focused upon the physical. Jesus tells them that He has partaken of spiritual food that far exceeds the value of temporal food. Those who have had the blessing of personally winning a soul to Christ have a special understanding of His statement. It is in this context He makes His appeal for harvest workers in our day as well, "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and [then] cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." (John 4:35)
