Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King #18 Jesus and the Woman at the Well - John 4

 

Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King #17
Jesus and the Woman at the Well - John 4

Introduction

John 3 and John 4 provide us with a master class in how to tell people about salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ. A master class taught by the Lord himself. If we are wise we will pay attention to the method and means utilized by Jesus as he explains, the new birth and living water to two totally different people. One is a famous and important teacher of the Pharisees and lives in Jerusalem. Nicodemus is the epitome of the Jewish way of life and beliefs. The other lives in Sychar, a village in Samaria. We don’t even know her name we just call her the Woman at the Well. She is as opposite of Nicodemus as can be imagined. She is unknown,  a rank infamous sinner, and a social outcast among the outcast Samaritans.

Centuries had passed since the nation of Israel had split into two separate warring nations, Israel, also called Samaria for its capital city, was in the north and Judah with Jerusalem as its capital, was in the south. The northern kingdom split from the southern kingdom under a rebel named Jeroboam who created a hybrid religion and worshipped two golden calves on two mountains in the north. It was led by multiple kings all of whom refused to obey God or His prophets.

Finally, God had enough and around 721 BC the northern kingdom was invaded by Assyria and most of it’s inhabitants deported. Those few that were left intermarried with other people imported by the Assyrian conquerors.  After Judah’s own capture and release they would have nothing to do with their northern neighbors. They now had very different cultures, values and especially religions. Very seldom would a Jew allow themselves to travel through Samaria and never would he have any type of contact if at all possible. Into this centuries old cultural battle Jesus must quickly go to Galilee and must “need go through Samaria.”

In many ways John 3 and 4 is about Jesus correcting misconceptions to Nicodemus, to the woman of Sychar and to His church, then and now.

Teaching truth where there was either ignorance or deception. Let me tell you a story about a misconception, it take place in the Atchafalaya swamps of Louisiana.  It begins with two old poachers and ends with a crow stew. Wash. Biol. Surv. Let's eat this here bird.

Spiritual Sight For The Woman at the Well

John 4:1-7 ​1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, 2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. 4 And he must needs go through Samaria. 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water:

An Unwell Woman At the Well of Jacob

First notice the phrase, “He must needs go through Samaria?” This seems to be describing either an physical urgency to get to Galilee, or a spiritual urgency to talk to the woman and through her introduce the Gospel into Samaria. In fact throughout this chapter and also in Chapter 3 with Nicodemus, Jesus was continually trying to get those around Him to see past the physical things, like being born of a mother and being born of the Spirit.

I believe that the urgency here was a spiritual one, He must needs go through Samaria because there was a lost, lonely, outcast woman who needed to meet her Savior and Jesus knew this and what the result would be. Just like He knew about you and me when He found us.

This meeting takes place about noon, about the sixth hour from sunrise. The disciple go into the village of Sychar to buy food, and here in the hot noon day sun Jesus rests by the one of the wells dug by the patriarch Jacob. And who else should be there but a woman drawing water, now this was usually done in the morning for the days upcoming cooking. Yet this woman is here now, the best reason to explain this is that she does not want to associate with the other women of the village. As we will find out, she has been passed from one man to another and I’m sure the women of the village had some very bad names to call her, especially if she had taken some of their husbands.

Now we come to our first misconception.

Misconception #1 Jews don't talk to Samaritans.

John 4:7-9 Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. ⁸ (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) ⁹ Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

Jesus didn’t just talk to this woman, he asked her to give him a drink, something from her unclean Samaritan hand and vessel. Talk about breaking down barriers. Jesus is doing it with a sledgehammer.

Her misconception was that this was no ordinary Jew. This was Jesus, Lord of life, Savior of mankind, creator of the world and here he is sitting on the wall of an ancient well talking to woman that society says He shouldn’t be talking to.

Lesson #1 If we are to look for the master to teach us about how to share the Gospel, then here is our first  lesson. No one is outside the need for salvation nor the need to share the Gospel. Jesus needed to go through Samaria to wait for this outcast woman and you and I need to Mark 16:15 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Go everywhere and wherever you go preach the gospel to everyone, regardless of class, race, gender or depth of sin they may be trapped in. If God in his providence give you and opportunity to share the story of salvation through His son Jesus and believe me He will give you that opportunity time and time again, then preach the Good News. Tell everyone, everywhere Jesus saves.

 Misconception #2 Physical water instead of spiritual water.

Living Water - John 4:10-15 Jesus answered and said unto her, 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. ¹¹ The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? ¹² -- Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? ¹³ Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: ¹⁴ But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. ¹⁵ The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

The woman of Sychar didn’t like coming to this well and possibly running into the village women who would shame her perhaps even drive her off, so she says, “Give me this water, this living water. I’m tired of coming to this well and I’m always thirsty.

Living water we understand was Jesus way of introducing a spiritual truth of salvation, but the woman doesn’t understand this spiritual truth. To her water is water and living water was the water that ran from the underground spiring into this well. You lowered your vessel and placed it under the living water, the running water and filled it.

Jesus is trying to tell her, I can give you eternal life, if you take the water I give you he will never thirst and it will spring up in you and not just quench the thirsting of you soul today, but will continually spring up and bring everlasting life. The water in the well the woman could see and understand but Jesus wanted her to see and understand the water of eternal life. Water that only He, the Messiah could give to her.

Again, if you’re a child of God, you know what Jesus is talking about but to a lost person like this woman, it is an impossible thing. Water is water, a well is a well, thirst is thirst and all these things are physical.

Lesson #2 Here is the next lesson from Jesus our evangelism teacher. This world and every person in it has two dimensions, the physical and the spiritual. The seen and the unseen. Both are real, both affect and touch us, but like Nicodemus until the spirit moves and we are born again, we can’t see or understand the spiritual dimension, the reality of another reality.

If we are to reach people with the Lord’s salvation message then they must be made aware of the truth, the reality of spiritual things. With Nicodemus it was the new birth and the wind, with the woman at the well it is water.

This bring us another aspect of witnessing, no two people are alike in their history, their culture, their experience or even in their sins. There is no one way to share the Gospel, because every person is different. If anyone ever tried to tell you that to get someone saved, (isn’t that idea already wrong?) to get someone saved you have to get them to recite a prayer then that person is a dangerous fool. And dangerous fools like that have misled millions of lost people into believing they are saved when they are just as lost at the woman of Sychar.

What then can Jesus do to break another barrier, the barrier of spiritual blindness? That brings us to the next misconception.

Misconception #3. Jesus was more than a prophet

John 4:16-26 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. ¹⁷ The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: ¹⁸ For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. ¹⁹ The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Lesson #3 In order to see and understand spiritual truth and salvation, one must see and understand who Jesus truly and fully is. This woman thinks Jesus is a prophet because he knows about here past. She is right, he is a prophet, but she doesn’t need a prophet she needs a savior. She begins asking him questions about religion, the Samaritan versus the Jews, Mt. Gerizim verses Mt. Zion.

Jesus cuts the diversion short because He is not here to discussing religions or mountains. She he tells her the most important truth, John 4:21 Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. It’s not about where or what its about who and when. The time Jesus was speaking of was when He would be revealed as God’s Son and the sacrifice for our sin. When that happened all that matters is Who is Jesus to me?

He tells us directly the truth. John 4:22-24 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. ²³ But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. ²⁴ God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

You as a Samaritan, don’t even know what you’re worshipping. Here is the truth, you need the truth, salvation came through the Jews, they kept the oracles of God and through the lineage of David, the Messiah would come.

Lesson #4 But know this, that that will soon be unimportant, what will be important is knowing the truth and responding to the truth. If you would truly know worship, then worship God in your emotions, and your will but also worship Him as He told us to worship Him, in doctrine, in truth. Your sincerity is good, but it is worthless if not given to God in truth. The truth He has given to us.

Misconception #4. It's not about religion, It’s about Jesus.

Jesus didn’t avoid the truth. He told here the truth and if you don’t share the truth then you are not sharing the Gospel. He did not tell here all religions are right as long as you are sincere. No, He told here, your religion is wrong, what you believe is wrong and no amount of emotional sincerity will make it right. There is one truth and that truh come from God’s word, yes, this is a Jewish book. Get used to it and praise God for using historians, prophets, poets and apostles of the Jewish nation, because salvation comes through the Jewish scriptures.

Lesson #5 Here is our lesson from Jesus, always tell the truth, but don’t let questions of religion or beliefs distract you from telling them about Jesus. The hour Jesus spoke about has come and gone. He has been revealed as our only hope of salvation. We must bring them this, the most important truth of all, the same truth he told Nicodemus when he explained the spiritual reality behind the bronze serpent in the wilderness, John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: ¹⁵ That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Its not about religion, its not about Jesus as a great teacher, prophet or moral example. Its about Jesus as Creator, Savior, Lord and King! Salvation is all about Him. The Gospel is all about Him.

How Jesus shared the gift of Salvation

John 3 and 4 show Jesus talking to two people about salvation and about Himself, and the two people could not be more different. One a man, one a woman, one very religious, one very immoral, one a Jew, one a Samaritan, one with a knowledge of the scriptures, the other ignorant and misled. The differences are easy to see but what do both accounts teach us about how Jesus shared the Gospel?

Jesus treats each person as a unique individual.

He deals with the person where they are and as they are.  He does not use the same approach, or the same words.

He shows them their spiritual need and the eternal result of salvation. To Nicodemus, “You must be born again, born from above, born of the Spirit.” And to the woman at the well, “let me give you living water do you never thirst again.”

The answer to all the questions about salvation, How can these things be? to What is true worship? to Give me this water, always Himself. Jesus is always and only the answer when the question is salvation.

One final misconception as we conclude this sermon and it’s a misconception that the church had then and one that we still have today. It also revolves around the physical versus the spiritual. Here is it in John 4:27-38

Spiritual Sight To the Apostles

Misconception #5 It not about physical needs, it’s about spiritual work

John 4:31-38
³¹ In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. ³² But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. ³³ Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? ³⁴ Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. ³⁵ 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. ³⁶ And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. ³⁷ And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. ³⁸ I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

 As the woman, now saved, now a believer, now no longer thirsting for water that could not satisfy, runs back to the village to tell all, “John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

The Bible says in the meantime, back at the well, the disciples, yes they are the first church, they have brought back food but now Jesus doesn’t want it.

And here is the blind spot, the church had then, None ask Jesus about the woman or why He was talking to Him. They just don’t ask. Maybe they thought it wasn’t any of their business what Jesus was doing and yet what could be more important to the church then and to our church today, that what is Jesus doing?

 They try to get him to eat, but He shockingly says, “I have food to eat and you don’t know anything about it.  The apostles could not comprehend what is going on, “Did someone already give him some food? Jesus now ties to elevate the spiritual vision of the apostles. They had some but not enough.

John 4:34-35 My meat, my food, is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. ³⁵ 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.

Jesus found the sustenance his soul needed by leading the Samaritan woman to salvation. He wasn’t hungry for physical food anymore; the spiritual food had filled him and supplanted the physical needs of his body.

 Lesson #6 - If Christ found sustenance by doing His Father’s will, ff winning a soul is far more important that eating, then what is the lesson for His church then and now?

Here it is - Spiritual work, like sharing the Gospel, seeing souls saved and all of God’s will, it the food, the sustenance, of the body of Christ, is telling others the Gospel of Christ and seeing souls saved. We are not here on earth today to seek fulfillment or have our needs met by physical things. Yes we live in a physical world and there are physical needs. Jesus did eat at other times and we have bills to pay, buildings to maintain and plans to be made, but first and foremost is the Gospel. Before all other things physical must be the spiritual things of God. The lesson that Jesus taught Nicodemus, the reality Jesus showed to the Woman at the Well, is the truth we must see today. We are involved in a supernatural, eternal, spiritual work. We are called and commissioned not to worry about our physical needs we have but to carry out the spiritual calling we have been given.

Jesus tells the first church, John 4:35-36 Lift up your eyes, (elevate your vision0 and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. ³⁶ And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

He is not talking about a physical harvest of wheat; He is talking about a spiritual harvest of souls from that Samaritan village. Lift up your eyes! See what is above, wee what is more important more eternal than the physical needs of this world.

What did Paul say to the Philippian church? Philippians 4:16-20 For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.( a physical need) ¹⁷ Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. (a spiritual reward) ¹⁸ But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, (a physical thing, but it was) an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God. (it was a spiritual sacrifice) ¹⁹ But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (a promise of a physical need met by a spiritual supply, His glory) ²⁰ Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Illustration: Elisha Prayer for His Servant Vision

Elisha’s prayer is Jesus’ lesson and Paul’s promise

2 Kings 6:15-17 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! How shall we do?  And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.  And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 

Conclusion

Do we believe that is still true today? Do we believe that they that be with us are more than they that be with them. Do we believe that with God all things are possible? Do we believe that the spiritual is real and must take the priority in the life of a child of God and in the life of the church of Jesus Christ?

Lord, open our eyes that we may see the power, the promise and the passion of the spiritual work we are called by Jesus our Lord to carry out today.