She Left Her Waterpot

SHE LEFT HER WATERPOT

John 4:4-30

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: DISASTER STRIKES TWICE

1. A cruise liner was blown off course by a hurricane and sank in the Pacific and the shipwrecked passengers swam to an island inhabited by cannibals. Only 3 passengers survived the shipwreck and they all happened to be members of the same church – Pastor Smith, Sister Strange, and Chuck Wagon. They were pulled from the water and brought before the chief of the cannibals.

2. "We’re looking forward to eating the three of you," he said, "but before we do, it’s our custom to grant you a last request. So each of you tell me what you would like to do before you die."

3. Chuck Wagon, who sings alternately off-key and screeching, said, “I want to sing the 2 hour version of the MESSIAH musical. I’ve always wanted to sing it, but the Pastor wouldn’t let me. I would like to sing it here, before I die." The chief said, "Granted."

4. Sister Strange said, “I want to tell – without being interrupted – about all the sicknesses I’ve ever had in my body. I’ve wanted to tell them all at church, but the Pastor wouldn’t let me. So even if it takes 3 hours, I want to tell them all before I die." "OK, granted," said the cannibal leader.

5. He turned to the Pastor and said, "And what about you? What do you want?" The Pastor replied, "I request to be eaten first, before they sing and recite!”

B. TEXT

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So [Jesus] came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.” John 4:5-19. 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I…speaking to you…am he.” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

C. THESIS

1. We’re going to look at the Samaritans, a woman there whom Christ personally singled out, and why this woman lost her head after their meeting.

2. The title of this message is “She Left Her Water Pot.”

I. THE PLIGHT OF THE SAMARITANS

A. THEIR HISTORY

1. Who are the Samaritans? Samaria was the capital of the Northern 10 tribes after they split away from David’s line (Judah/Benjamin) after Solomon.

2. The Assyrians & Babylonians conquered them and deported many Jews to other countries, and imported many other peoples into that area. The remaining Jews married into these people, making a race of half-breed Jews.

3. Feeling unwelcome in Jerusalem, these Samaritans built a copy of the Temple on Mt. Gerizim in 330 B.C. & offered sacrifices & the Passover (even to this day!).