Living Water John 4:1-42
Guest Pastor Brad Jones
11/13/2016
INTRODUCTION
Before we dive into this passage, I want to help set the scene so that we can better understand this story.
BACKGROUND: The relationship between the Jews and Samaritans – There was a lot of history, bad history between these two people groups. This was not a little rivalry like Canada vs the USA or San Diego vs L.A. They were once one people. The 12 tribes of Israel. But hundreds of years before Jesus met the woman at the well, the Northern 10 tribes broke away from the Davidic kingdom and formed their own nation with its capital in Samaria (the Kingdom was sometimes called “Samaria” hence the eventual name: Samaritans). So the people were divided politically. Now, the Lord’s temple was in Jerusalem which was in that southern Kingdom of Judah. So the northerners stopped coming to the temple to worship, their religion became corrupted and they fell into idolatry. So the people were divided from each other by politics and religion. Later, God sent the Assyrian empire judge the Northern Kingdom by destroying their cities and exiling most of the survivors throughout the world. The Assyrians also brought exiles from other nations and settled them where the Northern Kingdom once was. And so the surviving Israelites intermarried with those foreigners and their descendants came to be called Samaritans. The Samaritan religion was so corrupted that the Samaritans refused to acknowledge any books of the Bible except an edited version of the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible) and they refused to acknowledge the temple in Jerusalem. Instead they built their own temple on Mount Gerazim, because that was a prominent mountain in the Pentateuch. You can imagine how the Jews felt about that. In fact, towards the end of the second century B.C., just a little over a hundred years before Jesus met this Samaritan woman at the well, the Jews attacked and destroyed the temple on Mount Gerazim. So let’s summarize: the Jews and Samaritans had centuries of animosity and war—they had long memories—and they were divided by racial prejudice, religion, and politics.
SETTING: Jacob’s Well – The Jewish-Samaritan animosity is the background, the setting is Jacob’s Well. I think it’s pretty neat that this well is STILL there today. You can go visit it of you want. Today it is enclosed by an Eastern Orthodox church, which is actually the 5th church to be built over the well. And we know a few things about this well. It was dug by Jacob 1600 years before Christ. It is a very deep well. Its depth must have varied over the millennia, but it is over 100 feet deep. The well is unique because it is fed by a spring. And that explains all this talk of “living water” which meant moving or flowing water as opposed to stagnant water. It may partly explain the woman’s apparent misunderstanding of Jesus’ offer of “living water”.
THEME: Jesus’ universal mission of evangelism – We’ve briefly covered the background and the setting for the story. Now before we look at the details, I want us to think about the theme of this story, the main point! This passage is about Jesus’ mission of harvesting, what we usually call evangelism. In this passage Jesus teaches us evangelism by example. Jesus also shows us that His mission is universal—the harvest is not just for some but for every kind of people. And Jesus gives us the privilege, the joy, of joining Him in this divine work of evangelism!
Let’s now join Jesus at the well to learn from our Saviour:
FIRST LESSON: JESUS SAW PEOPLE NOT PREJUDICE
One of the keys to Jesus’ earthly ministry of evangelism was how He saw other people. This encounter at the well was a surprise to everyone involved except Jesus, because Jesus saw things differently than everyone else. Remember the prejudice and animosity that the Jews and Samaritans had for eachother. John reminds us in verse 9,
“For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”
When the disciples returned from buying food they were shocked to see Jesus speaking with a Samaritan woman. The woman herself was surprised that Jesus spoke to her,
The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (Joh 4:9 ESV)
Like the disciples, I think she was surprised on two accounts: Jesus was a Jew speaking to a Samaritan, and He was a man speaking to a woman. She was expected more than one kind of prejudice. But quite the opposite, Jesus didn’t just speak to her, He asked to drink from her water jar, something that would have repulsed most Jews who considered Samaritans to be perpetually unclean.
So we see that Jesus was not filled with the prejudices of either the Jews or the Samaritans. Just as Jesus would sit down to eat with tax collectors, and prostitutes. Jesus was willing to share a drink with her from her jar.
Notice how patient Jesus was with this somewhat difficult woman. She basically laughed at Jesus when He offered the living water. In verse 12 she tried to get the upper hand on Jesus by “namedropping” the patriarch Jacob:
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? (Joh 4:12 ESV)
The answer, she was thinking, was “no!” But Jesus overlooked the slight and calmly continued explaining the “living water” that He was offering. When Jesus asked her to bring her husband (v.16) she tells Jesus a half-truth, or more accurately something closer to a fifth-truth:
17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." (Joh 4:17-18 ESV)
Jesus didn’t pounce on her, He didn’t humiliate her. Jesus very generously affirmed the superficial truth in what she had said, and revealed to her that He knew the whole truth about her even before He asked the question.
There are two ways to understand what Jesus said about her current living arrangements: either she was living with a man who was not her husband, or even worse, she was living with a husband who was not hers! She had already gone through 5 marriages. It is exceedingly unlikely all her husbands died. More likely, they divorced her, they found something objectionable or deficient about her. I think it’s safe to assume the men she married were not upright men AND she was probably not a faithful wife. This woman was clearly living a very sinful life. That would have been a big deal in that society where marriage and sexuality were held in higher regard.
That probably explains why she was drawing water alone, at the sixth hour (which means noon, 6 hours form sunrise). Women wouldn’t usually go to the well alone because that was a dangerous thing to do. And women wouldn’t usually go at the hottest time of the day! I think John tells us the time of day because it reveals that she was an outcast in her own village. A notorious sinner. She was used to being ignored, ostracized, cast away, looked at with contempt.
But Jesus who knew ALL about her ALL ALONG and was still willing to speak with her, share a drink from her jar, and offer her the greatest gift--eternal life!
Because Jesus saw people DIFFERENTLY than we sometimes do. We often see good/bad people, those who are in and those who are out. Jesus saw that without Him ALL people are outcasts from GOD’s presence because of sin. The little divisions humans make between groups, the petty prejudices that humans feel toward others, those divisions are meaningless compared to reality of the human condition in God’s eyes
10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (Rom 3:10-12 ESV)
In reality, we are all those people. But Jesus doesn’t despise the “other”, He came to rescue the lost! When Jesus looked at that Samaritan woman what He saw was a person in need, one of God’s creatures who was trapped in a pattern of sinful self-destruction. He had compassion rather than contempt.
APPLICATION: Let’s apply this lesson to our own lives and evangelism: Brothers and sisters, Jesus was teaching His disciples how to identify the harvest. So He took His disciples to some of the most despised people Jews could think of, and then Jesus found an outcast among the outcasts, and Jesus said: “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”---“Are you really going to stand their puzzled by the fact that I’m talking to yes—a woman, yes—a Samaritan! Look at the beautiful harvest! Can’t you see her? Can’t you see them?
Christians, we are in danger of sabotaging our usefulness for the Kingdom harvest if we look with prejudice instead of seeing the person. Christians, are you writing off people who are part of THAT kind of community, OR who commit THOSE sins, or who are who adhere to THAT religion?
The first step to joining Jesus in His Divine work of Evangelism is to see people as God sees them: without prejudice, without contempt, but as sinners in need of living water.
THAT BRINGS US TO THE SECOND LESSON: JESUS SPOKE TRUTH NOT TRIPE
I wonder if there is anyone here doesn’t know what tripe is? Maybe everyone knows this and I was the only one out of the loop. But I learned the hard way. I was down in California visiting Westminster Seminary and some folks at the seminary took Kristin and I out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Now if you know what tripe is you will see the irony immediately: I was feeling really sick, sick to my stomach. So when we got to the restaurant I thought, I’ll just order something light and simple, like soup…and there on the menu was “Tripe soup”. Unfortunately, it was only after I ordered that our guests explained what I had ordered. It turns out that Tripe is made from the ‘edible’ parts of the stomach or intestines of pig or other animals…I didn’t eat much of my soup.
But in common language, “tripe” is slang for writing or speech that is worthless, false, nonsense or rubbish.
Why do I say that Jesus spoke truth not tripe? Because tripe is a really good description of what many people today are speaking. We live in a time when people consciously speak and promote rubbish, falsehood, lies. Other societies have valued believing what is true over believing whatever you prefer. But our society says it’s fine to believe whatever you like! Imagine if any of today’s religious, political, or popular thinkers had met that woman at the well: they too might have been kind and non-prejudicial toward the Samaritan woman. But they would tell her that she had nothing to be ashamed of! Who cares about adultery, enjoy your life, and all those differences in religion between Jews and Samaritans, about who is God and how to worship him rightly—don’t worry about it. To each her own! To some that might sound compassionate and loving…but actually it’s garbage, it’s ideological tripe, it’s irrational and it is NOT loving.
Jesus genuinely loved her and so He spoke hard truths to her. It’s no accident that Jesus exposed her sin! That awkward statement in verse 16,
“Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here’”
It might seem like that comment came out of nowhere, but those word were spoken with the same compassion that offered the living water! Those words were sharp—yes--and they surely stung, but they were as controlled and necessary as a surgeon’s scalpel! She had shown some interest in the living water, but Jesus knew she wouldn’t receive it unless she recognized her sin for what it was. Jesus needed to expose her sin to show her why she needed living and cleansing water.
And when she perhaps tried to evade the uncomfortable conversation about her sinful life by bringing up the centuries of religious disagreement between Jews and Samaritans, again Jesus did not hesitate to speak hard truth and set the record straight (v.22):
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (Joh 4:22 ESV)
That was controversial to say in Samaria. That is controversial to say today: that there is some sort of exclusive way to God. That even the Samaritan faith which involved a sincere devotion to pieces of the genuine religion, even that was not good enough. Jesus told her that she and her people were wrong, and that they did NOT know God, because she needed to know that her religion would not save her.
Now before we all go out to speak hard truths to everyone, notice Jesus SPOKE HARD TRUTHS out of a compassion and with a purpose.
Jesus told her the truth, about Sin, False Religion, yes; but He was gentle and He invited her to look beyond argument about God and religion to knowing God and having a true religion. Jesus wasn’t content to win an argument and lose the person. Jesus spoke hard truths as necessary, with the aim of sharing the happy truths, the Good News: about Salvation, and about Himself!
Look at VERSE 25-26
25 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." (Joh 4:25-26 ESV)
What Jesus did there is really surprising. Jesus carefully avoided telling people He was the Messiah. But to this stubborn, sinful, Samaritan woman He plainly revealed His identity. I don’t know ANYWHERE else in the Gospels where Jesus was this open.
Jesus didn’t just preach AT her, He opened up to her, there was gentleness, there was conversation, relationship, not just condemnation!
APPLICATION: Again, let’s apply Jesus’ example to our own lives and evangelism. Jesus spoke hard truths. Do we have the courage to speak Truth? Hard truths? Offensive Truths? That salvation is in Jesus alone? That people are living lives of sin leading to death? AND can we speak that truth while maintaining genuine compassion and building relationships? AND I have to ask, If we are prepared to speak hard truths, are we first willing to hear that truth for ourselves?
THIRD LESSON: JESUS SHARED ETERNAL LIFE, NOT EMPTY PROMISES.
The Samaritan woman came to the well looking for water. Water maintains physical life. But it’s obvious that she was looking for more than that. Like all people, what she really wanted was to have life—not survival—LIFE with all that means! Happiness, purpose, identity, relationship—that’s LIFE, it’s not just a biological thing, it’s not just a heartbeat. We can see in her lifestyle the story of a woman seeking those things.
Think of her 5 failed marriages and her present live in situation. Before we simply condemn her sexual sin, let’s try compassion on. Why was she doing that? Not because she LOVED misery, abuse, heartache! She gave into to sin because she was seeking happiness, purpose, relationships, identity—LIFE. She was seeking GOOD things, and so she believed the LIE that she could get those things through SIN. SIN promises happiness and so much more. The trouble is, the satisfaction doesn’t last.
God’s description of this sinful self-destruction in Jeremiah 2:13 is very appropriate to this passage,
Jeremiah 2:13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Isn’t that the sin of all people: we look for life and satisfaction EVERYWHERE except in God!
People look to houses, bank accounts, holidays, promotions, awards, kids, love, pleasure …but apart from God even the good things are broken cisterns because they were never meant to provide what can only come from God! They don’t work, they don’t last…and it insults and angers God that we turn from HIM to seek life in these temporary things.
Instead of what she came for, Jesus offered her eternal life, which He called “living water”.
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (Joh 4:13-14 ESV)
The imagery is rich and clear. Water is the source of life. The difference between a lush garden and dusty desert is water. Jesus doesn’t just offer water, or life, He offers LIVING water, fresh water from a never ending source. Dependable like the spring in well of Jacob which is still flowing today! When Jesus says “living water” he means LIFE that is everlasting, that is sweet not stale, and that is derived from the SOURCE of LIFE, the Living God Himself! This means forgiveness and reconciliation with God, it means resurrection from the dead, it means an eternal relationship with Him!
LESSON FOUR: JESUS SHARED THE ABUNDANT HARVEST
Jesus is not only giving us an example of HOW to do evangelism, but He was encouraging His disciples to evangelize by letting them see the joy of the harvest!
Look at verse 28,
28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" (Joh 4:28-29 ESV)
The whole reason she came to the well was to draw water, and yet John tells us that she didn’t even take the jar with her when she left! Why? Because she had already drunk the living water. She believed in Jesus. She found satisfaction in Him. The Holy Spirit had filled her with faith, her priorities were changing.
A commentator once said:
“she first caught sight of a thirsty man, then a jew, then a rabbi, afterwards a prophet, last of all the Messiah. She tried to get the better of the thirsty man, she showed her dislike of the jew, she heckled the rabbi, she was swept off her feet by the prophet, and she adored the Christ (Findlay, p.61)
She had come to know and love Jesus! So she SHARED the Good news about Jesus with her village like a woman might share the good news of her engagement! AND amazingly, Many Samaritans came to faith, they believed Jesus’ words and they were changed so that a Samaritan village would invite a Jewish teacher to stay with them!
In response to all this Jesus told his disciples,
Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." (Joh 4:35-38 ESV)
Jesus was telling His disciples, He is telling us that NOW is the time of the Harvest! Many believed and labored to preserve the faith before Christ. But now that Jesus has come, and the Holy Spirit is poured out on the nations, the Gospel is not something that perseveres but something that produces a crop! The Old Testament prophets spoke of our time:
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. 5 This one will say, 'I am the LORD's,' another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The LORD's,' and name himself by the name of Israel." (Isa 44:3-5 ESV)
Or consider the prophecy in Amos 9:13,
13 "Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. (Amo 9:13 ESV)
The image is of such fruitfulness and abundance: before the harvesters are finished the plowman already as the next crop in the ground; before the sower of seed is finished planting the vines have already produced, the grapes have been harvested and treaded into wine—sweet wine. Don’t underestimate the Harvest of evangelism.
CONCLUSION
To share the good news, we must see people in need, we must speak truth, and we must lead them to the Living Water! You know how good this living water is! You have come to adore the Christ, for His tenderness, His wisdom, His compassion, His generosity! You can boldly invite others to come to Jesus because YOU know that Jesus is gentle and compassionate to sinners.
And John 4 is an encouragement of WHAT to expect when we join Jesus in His Work: fields that are ripe for harvest!
“"Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" (Joh 4:29 ESV)
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Guest Pastor Brad Jones
11/13/2016
INTRODUCTION
Before we dive into this passage, I want to help set the scene so that we can better understand this story.
BACKGROUND: The relationship between the Jews and Samaritans – There was a lot of history, bad history between these two people groups. This was not a little rivalry like Canada vs the USA or San Diego vs L.A. They were once one people. The 12 tribes of Israel. But hundreds of years before Jesus met the woman at the well, the Northern 10 tribes broke away from the Davidic kingdom and formed their own nation with its capital in Samaria (the Kingdom was sometimes called “Samaria” hence the eventual name: Samaritans). So the people were divided politically. Now, the Lord’s temple was in Jerusalem which was in that southern Kingdom of Judah. So the northerners stopped coming to the temple to worship, their religion became corrupted and they fell into idolatry. So the people were divided from each other by politics and religion. Later, God sent the Assyrian empire judge the Northern Kingdom by destroying their cities and exiling most of the survivors throughout the world. The Assyrians also brought exiles from other nations and settled them where the Northern Kingdom once was. And so the surviving Israelites intermarried with those foreigners and their descendants came to be called Samaritans. The Samaritan religion was so corrupted that the Samaritans refused to acknowledge any books of the Bible except an edited version of the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible) and they refused to acknowledge the temple in Jerusalem. Instead they built their own temple on Mount Gerazim, because that was a prominent mountain in the Pentateuch. You can imagine how the Jews felt about that. In fact, towards the end of the second century B.C., just a little over a hundred years before Jesus met this Samaritan woman at the well, the Jews attacked and destroyed the temple on Mount Gerazim. So let’s summarize: the Jews and Samaritans had centuries of animosity and war—they had long memories—and they were divided by racial prejudice, religion, and politics.
SETTING: Jacob’s Well – The Jewish-Samaritan animosity is the background, the setting is Jacob’s Well. I think it’s pretty neat that this well is STILL there today. You can go visit it of you want. Today it is enclosed by an Eastern Orthodox church, which is actually the 5th church to be built over the well. And we know a few things about this well. It was dug by Jacob 1600 years before Christ. It is a very deep well. Its depth must have varied over the millennia, but it is over 100 feet deep. The well is unique because it is fed by a spring. And that explains all this talk of “living water” which meant moving or flowing water as opposed to stagnant water. It may partly explain the woman’s apparent misunderstanding of Jesus’ offer of “living water”.
THEME: Jesus’ universal mission of evangelism – We’ve briefly covered the background and the setting for the story. Now before we look at the details, I want us to think about the theme of this story, the main point! This passage is about Jesus’ mission of harvesting, what we usually call evangelism. In this passage Jesus teaches us evangelism by example. Jesus also shows us that His mission is universal—the harvest is not just for some but for every kind of people. And Jesus gives us the privilege, the joy, of joining Him in this divine work of evangelism!
Let’s now join Jesus at the well to learn from our Saviour:
FIRST LESSON: JESUS SAW PEOPLE NOT PREJUDICE
One of the keys to Jesus’ earthly ministry of evangelism was how He saw other people. This encounter at the well was a surprise to everyone involved except Jesus, because Jesus saw things differently than everyone else. Remember the prejudice and animosity that the Jews and Samaritans had for eachother. John reminds us in verse 9,
“For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”
When the disciples returned from buying food they were shocked to see Jesus speaking with a Samaritan woman. The woman herself was surprised that Jesus spoke to her,
The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (Joh 4:9 ESV)
Like the disciples, I think she was surprised on two accounts: Jesus was a Jew speaking to a Samaritan, and He was a man speaking to a woman. She was expected more than one kind of prejudice. But quite the opposite, Jesus didn’t just speak to her, He asked to drink from her water jar, something that would have repulsed most Jews who considered Samaritans to be perpetually unclean.
So we see that Jesus was not filled with the prejudices of either the Jews or the Samaritans. Just as Jesus would sit down to eat with tax collectors, and prostitutes. Jesus was willing to share a drink with her from her jar.
Notice how patient Jesus was with this somewhat difficult woman. She basically laughed at Jesus when He offered the living water. In verse 12 she tried to get the upper hand on Jesus by “namedropping” the patriarch Jacob:
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? (Joh 4:12 ESV)
The answer, she was thinking, was “no!” But Jesus overlooked the slight and calmly continued explaining the “living water” that He was offering. When Jesus asked her to bring her husband (v.16) she tells Jesus a half-truth, or more accurately something closer to a fifth-truth:
17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." (Joh 4:17-18 ESV)
Jesus didn’t pounce on her, He didn’t humiliate her. Jesus very generously affirmed the superficial truth in what she had said, and revealed to her that He knew the whole truth about her even before He asked the question.
There are two ways to understand what Jesus said about her current living arrangements: either she was living with a man who was not her husband, or even worse, she was living with a husband who was not hers! She had already gone through 5 marriages. It is exceedingly unlikely all her husbands died. More likely, they divorced her, they found something objectionable or deficient about her. I think it’s safe to assume the men she married were not upright men AND she was probably not a faithful wife. This woman was clearly living a very sinful life. That would have been a big deal in that society where marriage and sexuality were held in higher regard.
That probably explains why she was drawing water alone, at the sixth hour (which means noon, 6 hours form sunrise). Women wouldn’t usually go to the well alone because that was a dangerous thing to do. And women wouldn’t usually go at the hottest time of the day! I think John tells us the time of day because it reveals that she was an outcast in her own village. A notorious sinner. She was used to being ignored, ostracized, cast away, looked at with contempt.
But Jesus who knew ALL about her ALL ALONG and was still willing to speak with her, share a drink from her jar, and offer her the greatest gift--eternal life!
Because Jesus saw people DIFFERENTLY than we sometimes do. We often see good/bad people, those who are in and those who are out. Jesus saw that without Him ALL people are outcasts from GOD’s presence because of sin. The little divisions humans make between groups, the petty prejudices that humans feel toward others, those divisions are meaningless compared to reality of the human condition in God’s eyes
10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (Rom 3:10-12 ESV)
In reality, we are all those people. But Jesus doesn’t despise the “other”, He came to rescue the lost! When Jesus looked at that Samaritan woman what He saw was a person in need, one of God’s creatures who was trapped in a pattern of sinful self-destruction. He had compassion rather than contempt.
APPLICATION: Let’s apply this lesson to our own lives and evangelism: Brothers and sisters, Jesus was teaching His disciples how to identify the harvest. So He took His disciples to some of the most despised people Jews could think of, and then Jesus found an outcast among the outcasts, and Jesus said: “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”---“Are you really going to stand their puzzled by the fact that I’m talking to yes—a woman, yes—a Samaritan! Look at the beautiful harvest! Can’t you see her? Can’t you see them?
Christians, we are in danger of sabotaging our usefulness for the Kingdom harvest if we look with prejudice instead of seeing the person. Christians, are you writing off people who are part of THAT kind of community, OR who commit THOSE sins, or who are who adhere to THAT religion?
The first step to joining Jesus in His Divine work of Evangelism is to see people as God sees them: without prejudice, without contempt, but as sinners in need of living water.
THAT BRINGS US TO THE SECOND LESSON: JESUS SPOKE TRUTH NOT TRIPE
I wonder if there is anyone here doesn’t know what tripe is? Maybe everyone knows this and I was the only one out of the loop. But I learned the hard way. I was down in California visiting Westminster Seminary and some folks at the seminary took Kristin and I out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Now if you know what tripe is you will see the irony immediately: I was feeling really sick, sick to my stomach. So when we got to the restaurant I thought, I’ll just order something light and simple, like soup…and there on the menu was “Tripe soup”. Unfortunately, it was only after I ordered that our guests explained what I had ordered. It turns out that Tripe is made from the ‘edible’ parts of the stomach or intestines of pig or other animals…I didn’t eat much of my soup.
But in common language, “tripe” is slang for writing or speech that is worthless, false, nonsense or rubbish.
Why do I say that Jesus spoke truth not tripe? Because tripe is a really good description of what many people today are speaking. We live in a time when people consciously speak and promote rubbish, falsehood, lies. Other societies have valued believing what is true over believing whatever you prefer. But our society says it’s fine to believe whatever you like! Imagine if any of today’s religious, political, or popular thinkers had met that woman at the well: they too might have been kind and non-prejudicial toward the Samaritan woman. But they would tell her that she had nothing to be ashamed of! Who cares about adultery, enjoy your life, and all those differences in religion between Jews and Samaritans, about who is God and how to worship him rightly—don’t worry about it. To each her own! To some that might sound compassionate and loving…but actually it’s garbage, it’s ideological tripe, it’s irrational and it is NOT loving.
Jesus genuinely loved her and so He spoke hard truths to her. It’s no accident that Jesus exposed her sin! That awkward statement in verse 16,
“Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here’”
It might seem like that comment came out of nowhere, but those word were spoken with the same compassion that offered the living water! Those words were sharp—yes--and they surely stung, but they were as controlled and necessary as a surgeon’s scalpel! She had shown some interest in the living water, but Jesus knew she wouldn’t receive it unless she recognized her sin for what it was. Jesus needed to expose her sin to show her why she needed living and cleansing water.
And when she perhaps tried to evade the uncomfortable conversation about her sinful life by bringing up the centuries of religious disagreement between Jews and Samaritans, again Jesus did not hesitate to speak hard truth and set the record straight (v.22):
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (Joh 4:22 ESV)
That was controversial to say in Samaria. That is controversial to say today: that there is some sort of exclusive way to God. That even the Samaritan faith which involved a sincere devotion to pieces of the genuine religion, even that was not good enough. Jesus told her that she and her people were wrong, and that they did NOT know God, because she needed to know that her religion would not save her.
Now before we all go out to speak hard truths to everyone, notice Jesus SPOKE HARD TRUTHS out of a compassion and with a purpose.
Jesus told her the truth, about Sin, False Religion, yes; but He was gentle and He invited her to look beyond argument about God and religion to knowing God and having a true religion. Jesus wasn’t content to win an argument and lose the person. Jesus spoke hard truths as necessary, with the aim of sharing the happy truths, the Good News: about Salvation, and about Himself!
Look at VERSE 25-26
25 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." (Joh 4:25-26 ESV)
What Jesus did there is really surprising. Jesus carefully avoided telling people He was the Messiah. But to this stubborn, sinful, Samaritan woman He plainly revealed His identity. I don’t know ANYWHERE else in the Gospels where Jesus was this open.
Jesus didn’t just preach AT her, He opened up to her, there was gentleness, there was conversation, relationship, not just condemnation!
APPLICATION: Again, let’s apply Jesus’ example to our own lives and evangelism. Jesus spoke hard truths. Do we have the courage to speak Truth? Hard truths? Offensive Truths? That salvation is in Jesus alone? That people are living lives of sin leading to death? AND can we speak that truth while maintaining genuine compassion and building relationships? AND I have to ask, If we are prepared to speak hard truths, are we first willing to hear that truth for ourselves?
THIRD LESSON: JESUS SHARED ETERNAL LIFE, NOT EMPTY PROMISES.
The Samaritan woman came to the well looking for water. Water maintains physical life. But it’s obvious that she was looking for more than that. Like all people, what she really wanted was to have life—not survival—LIFE with all that means! Happiness, purpose, identity, relationship—that’s LIFE, it’s not just a biological thing, it’s not just a heartbeat. We can see in her lifestyle the story of a woman seeking those things.
Think of her 5 failed marriages and her present live in situation. Before we simply condemn her sexual sin, let’s try compassion on. Why was she doing that? Not because she LOVED misery, abuse, heartache! She gave into to sin because she was seeking happiness, purpose, relationships, identity—LIFE. She was seeking GOOD things, and so she believed the LIE that she could get those things through SIN. SIN promises happiness and so much more. The trouble is, the satisfaction doesn’t last.
God’s description of this sinful self-destruction in Jeremiah 2:13 is very appropriate to this passage,
Jeremiah 2:13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Isn’t that the sin of all people: we look for life and satisfaction EVERYWHERE except in God!
People look to houses, bank accounts, holidays, promotions, awards, kids, love, pleasure …but apart from God even the good things are broken cisterns because they were never meant to provide what can only come from God! They don’t work, they don’t last…and it insults and angers God that we turn from HIM to seek life in these temporary things.
Instead of what she came for, Jesus offered her eternal life, which He called “living water”.
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (Joh 4:13-14 ESV)
The imagery is rich and clear. Water is the source of life. The difference between a lush garden and dusty desert is water. Jesus doesn’t just offer water, or life, He offers LIVING water, fresh water from a never ending source. Dependable like the spring in well of Jacob which is still flowing today! When Jesus says “living water” he means LIFE that is everlasting, that is sweet not stale, and that is derived from the SOURCE of LIFE, the Living God Himself! This means forgiveness and reconciliation with God, it means resurrection from the dead, it means an eternal relationship with Him!
LESSON FOUR: JESUS SHARED THE ABUNDANT HARVEST
Jesus is not only giving us an example of HOW to do evangelism, but He was encouraging His disciples to evangelize by letting them see the joy of the harvest!
Look at verse 28,
28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" (Joh 4:28-29 ESV)
The whole reason she came to the well was to draw water, and yet John tells us that she didn’t even take the jar with her when she left! Why? Because she had already drunk the living water. She believed in Jesus. She found satisfaction in Him. The Holy Spirit had filled her with faith, her priorities were changing.
A commentator once said:
“she first caught sight of a thirsty man, then a jew, then a rabbi, afterwards a prophet, last of all the Messiah. She tried to get the better of the thirsty man, she showed her dislike of the jew, she heckled the rabbi, she was swept off her feet by the prophet, and she adored the Christ (Findlay, p.61)
She had come to know and love Jesus! So she SHARED the Good news about Jesus with her village like a woman might share the good news of her engagement! AND amazingly, Many Samaritans came to faith, they believed Jesus’ words and they were changed so that a Samaritan village would invite a Jewish teacher to stay with them!
In response to all this Jesus told his disciples,
Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." (Joh 4:35-38 ESV)
Jesus was telling His disciples, He is telling us that NOW is the time of the Harvest! Many believed and labored to preserve the faith before Christ. But now that Jesus has come, and the Holy Spirit is poured out on the nations, the Gospel is not something that perseveres but something that produces a crop! The Old Testament prophets spoke of our time:
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. 5 This one will say, 'I am the LORD's,' another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The LORD's,' and name himself by the name of Israel." (Isa 44:3-5 ESV)
Or consider the prophecy in Amos 9:13,
13 "Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. (Amo 9:13 ESV)
The image is of such fruitfulness and abundance: before the harvesters are finished the plowman already as the next crop in the ground; before the sower of seed is finished planting the vines have already produced, the grapes have been harvested and treaded into wine—sweet wine. Don’t underestimate the Harvest of evangelism.
CONCLUSION
To share the good news, we must see people in need, we must speak truth, and we must lead them to the Living Water! You know how good this living water is! You have come to adore the Christ, for His tenderness, His wisdom, His compassion, His generosity! You can boldly invite others to come to Jesus because YOU know that Jesus is gentle and compassionate to sinners.
And John 4 is an encouragement of WHAT to expect when we join Jesus in His Work: fields that are ripe for harvest!
“"Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" (Joh 4:29 ESV)
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