John 4:1-38

John 4: 1-38

In our last lesson, we had the record of Jesus’ nighttime discussion with the noble Nicodemus.  Closely following, John gives us the story of the interview with the unworthy woman at the well of Sychar.  Jesus ministered to the higher-ups in human achievement and on t those less fortunate, even the fallen…He showed concern and assistance to ALL.

The woman of Samaria was not only a sinner, but a foreigner.  The barriers were high, yet Jesus rolled all of them back.  Needs were great, but Jesus met them with His divine power and without reluctance.  She was bound up in sin and tradition having relegated religion and God to a particular place…Mt. Gerizim.  Also we have in this story significance is placed on the practice of religion – true worship.  

SONG:  “Like the woman at the well, I was thirsting for things that would not satisfy.  And then I heard my Savior speaking, ‘draw from My well, it never shall run dry.  Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up, Lord.  Come and fill this thirsting of my soul.  Bread of Heaven, feed me til I want no more, Fill my cup, Fill it up and make me whole.”

It is an easy matter for those of us who are preoccupied in our duties and activities – exhausted from our travels in life to seek rest for our weary bodies and to excuse ourselves from the Christian obligation of witnessing.  

(Son, Wes, and the bride-to-be last week)

Jesus never yielded to such a temptation to avoid sharing with others…His sense of the needs of others never dwindled and His care for human greatest needs for a Savior never wavered.

Jesus was traveling through Samaria…a remarkable fact.  The strictest Jews traveled from Jerusalem by crossing over the Jordan, going northward to a point near the Sea of Galilee and then entering Galilee at a place which would avoid Samaria altogether.  BUT the LORD saw the Samaritans as needy people.  The LORD was weary physically from the travel…He experienced physical exhaustion at Jacob’s well…His disciples went on to a nearby village to buy bread.  

At noon, the woman of Samaria came to the well.  The Lord KNEW her inmost spiritual needs …she not only was of an unfortunate race, but she seemed not to be accepted even among her own misfit people.  Did she come to the well at noon to avoid crowds at the regular time in the late evening?  Perhaps so.  She might have been a loner or an outcast.  

Forgetting his own discomfort, Jesus devoted Himself to one thing – meeting the soul needs of this unworthy woman.  Her people were the product of unfortunate mixed marriages at the time of the Assyrian conquest of Palestine.  Because of the mixture, the Samaritans were not acceptable to either of the diverse races.  

Added to her background was the fact that the Samaritan woman had a lax morality.  Her spiritual needs were intense.  Her heartache was great…AND JESUS KNEW ALL ABOUT IT!

Not mincing words, Jesus tackled the problem head on.  The LORD gave the disciples and us an important lesson on evangelism.  What the LORD did in that encounter at the well revealed that one is worthless, no person lacks potential for good, and no one is beyond hope.  

(Mike Gilchrist on the plane…stewardess asked, “Would you like a drink?”  “I had a drink over 23 years ago that satisfied where I have never needed another one!”)

The LORD “HAD to  pass through Samaria…for He had a divine appointment with a woman at Jacob’s well.  The Samaritans were a mixed people…Jew and Assyrian who resulted from the amalgamation of the Jews of the Northern Kingdom with the Assyrians after the fall of the North in 722 B.C.  These Samaritans were considered outcasts by the “pure Jews” and virtually no social contact occurred although some commercial trade was observed.  They even had a rival worship system centered at Mt. Gerizim in Samaria instead of Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem.  

Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman in bringing about the transformation in her life is revealing and inspiring.  The LORD was burdened for this woman who apparently lacked concern for herself.  He dared to speak to her although He knew that such conversation was taboo in the eyes of the Jews and Samaritans both.  She responded right away with the reminder in V. 9 of the cultural prejudices.  

The LORD initiated the conversation.  The LORD who knows all human hearts spoke to the woman’s conscious need…a deep thirst.  He talked of water…the object of her quest to the well.  He spoke in plain language she understood and communicated profound theological truths to her mind – she had no background for theological thinking.  He quickly turned the conversation from the physical to the spiritual.

  

The woman responded she called Jesus a prophet and turned the conversation from herself to religious matters… trying to get Jesus to declare whether the Jews of Samaritans were right about the proper place to worship.  

The LORD disarmed her completely for He taught a deep truth…God is not confined to a locale for HE is Spirit and He seeks men who will worship Him in Spirit and truth.  He put religiosity in its place.  

She was amazed that this strange man showed an interest in her spiritual welfare or that he even cared.  Compassion truly counts.  Without it, knowledge and vision falter.  He undoubtedly had an expression on His face and compassion in the tone of His voice that convened truth of her careless past in such a way that He did not repel her, but rather led her to seek more guidance and to yearn for cleansing.  

The woman was well versed in the Scripture knowing that Messiah is coming. V. 25.His conversation led her to the Messiah…the only One Who would change every area of her life.  

Evangelism’s purpose is best expressed when those who are evangelized become in turn evangelists.  The woman at the well heard Jesus revelation of Himself and she trusted.  Then she ran to let others know the inner joys of her heart.  She rushed out crying, “Come, see a man v. 29.  As a result of her witness, “Many of the Samaritans of that city believed. V. 39.  … not simply because they heard her testimony and observed the tremendous alteration in her own life, but because at her invitation, they had come themselves to see and to hear Jesus.  

The Lord overlooked His own exhaustion and launched into an aggressive evangelistic effort with the freshness and alertness of an early morning.  When the disciples returned and brought bread, He explained His resurgence of energy and vigor by saying, “I have meat to eat that you know not of. V. 32.  Great was His joy.  The LORD was in effect saying I am nourished more by doing the Father’s will than by eating food.  Who could be hungry at a time like this?  The physical harvest of crops is 4 months off, but a spiritual harvest is at your feet…get busy reaping the fruit sown by another.  Get your focus off your stomach and onto spiritual matters which are of far greater importance.  JUST AS OUR JOY WILL BE WHEN WE LEAD OTHERS TO CHRIST.

The LORD provided us with guiding principles for all time in our evangelistic efforts.  “God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.”  V. 24 suggest that in soul-winning as inn worship it is not the place but the attitude that counts most.  Souls can be won as readily at a well curb as at an altar…for God is everywhere.  

When the LORD said, Lif us your eyes, and took on the fields for they are white already to harvest.”…He is magnifying for you and me the emergency of the task  and the immediate responsibility of all believers to give guidance to others who need to know THE Way!  Because you have been saved, you have a story to tell and must proclaim it anywhere and to any person.  The world may consider someone worthless, unfortunate, downcast, Jesus shows their worth!!!  We cannot permit ourselves to be sidetracked from our main duty or to ask exemption from our responsibility to share.  

Jesus – Who lives in you and me – sees people not only for what they are, but views them in the light of His redeeming love and transforming grace.  HE changes lives.  

True worshippers of God:  1.  Seek spiritual things, no material ones.  The woman at the well was majoring on having her physical needs met v. 15 while Jesus was trying to get her to seek after spiritual things.  Physical needs such as water recur again and again and can only be met temporarily.  Spiritual needs can be met permanently by the “living water” of the Holy Spirit v. 13-14 from within a person.  

2.  See the truth:  about themselves and their sin. V. 16-19                                                                                 

                             About God…He is Spirit v. 24, He is not limited by space v. 21, He seeks true worshippers v. 23, and is seen through Jesus the Messiah v. 26.

3.  Speaks to others of the LORD v. 28 – 29  

CONCLUSION:  Are you a true worshipper of Christ, or do you still seek after material things and see God as relegated to a place (church)?  Are you ready always to give an Answer for the Hope that is in You???