Sharing The Passion

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.