A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Water Cooler
Tom Shrader walks through Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, emphasizing how Christ breaks down social and religious barriers to reach those considered outcasts. He contrasts temporary earthly satisfaction with the eternal satisfaction found only in Christ, showing how Jesus addresses both spiritual need and personal sin with compassion and truth.
“Every person, place, or thing in your life, whatever it is, though it may satisfy a legitimate need, you need to go back again.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: John: The Essence of Life (2003)
Recorded: 2003
Duration: 45 min
Themes: grace, compassion, acceptance, evangelism, outreach, prejudice, thirst, satisfaction, feeling rejected, struggling with shame, experiencing prejudice, new believer, seeking purpose, evangelist, outreach worker, feeling unworthy
Scripture: John 4:1-42, John 20:30, Genesis 33, Genesis 48, Joshua 24
Theological Themes: soteriology, salvation, incarnation, christology, divine compassion, biblical evangelism, spiritual thirst, eternal life
Full Transcript
Today we begin session 3 of what will be 12 weeks studying the Gospel of John. I think we've said this to you before: somebody much more gifted than I could spend 12 weeks on the first verse of John alone. So obviously this is a satellite view, and what we're really trying to do is give you a flavor of what John has in mind as he writes this Gospel. As I say that, understand he's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is God's Word.
John does not ask us to try to figure out some sort of subtle signs here. He just tells us up front—well, actually, he tells us in the back of the book, but very clearly—John chapter 20, verse 30: "Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which aren't written in this book, but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that is, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name."
We said to you the previous two weeks that an operative word throughout this book is the word "believe" or "believed." When we talk about placing your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that's what we're talking about here—belief. And that this belief is not just an accumulation of facts.
The Greatest Obstacle to Faith
I think I said it last week, but it's just something that's become more and more clear to me: as we talk to people, let's say non-Christians, about our faith, our biggest obstacle, I think, is not necessarily Jesus, because almost everyone acknowledges Jesus. I went to Google the other day and typed in "Jesus," and I found 3,500,000 websites or hits or references. So everybody's pretty much lined up that Jesus exists.
There's a book called "The Most Hundred Influential People of All Time" by a secular guy—there's no religious bias to it. If I remember, the list goes something like this: Muhammad, Isaac Newton, Jesus, Confucius, Buddha, Paul. What is fascinating to me, as I said, the guy has no spiritual bias, yet five of the top six are spiritual people. This would lead me to believe that this whole spiritual thing is pretty important—figuring this out. And John says, "Listen, I've got it figured out, and I have the answer." That's not arrogant; that's a statement of fact.
When I turned on the TV yesterday, they said, "We've now figured out the cause for this mysterious virus—we have the cause figured out." This bugs me. I didn't hear one person go, "That is so arrogant on their behalf. Who were they to say they have the cause?" Did you hear one person say that? I heard them say, "That's terrific, that's good news, we're glad, now we can do something about it."
But if you come along and say, "Listen, I found the solution to your sin problem," they say, "That's so arrogant, that's so bigoted, that's so narrow-minded." Well, that's so stupid on their part. If you have the answer, it seems to me sharing it isn't arrogant—it's truth, it's honest, it's loving.
The Woman at the Well
Open your Bibles today to John chapter 4, and we're going to talk about the woman at the well. We leave it that way because we really don't get in this chapter her name. I will tell you that this is one of those passages that as a teacher, if you do not harness and restrict yourself, you can take an awful lot of liberties in. There are a lot of little inferences that you can make in here that would, if you allow the term, preach pretty well. I'm just not sure if it would lead to truth in your life, so you're going to have to handle that. You can handle that—you're generally speaking mature and adult people. I'm sure some of you, probably from U of A, so it will be a little harder for you, but the rest of you will figure this out real fast I think.
Let me give you a little background. Let's look at John chapter 4, verse 1: "When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, His disciples were. He left Judea, departed into Galilee, and He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to the city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there, and Jesus therefore, being weary from His journey, was sitting thus by the well, and it was the sixth hour."
Understanding the Geography
You need a little bit of history, and many of you, I think, are familiar with this. You've got your Bibles—go to the back, to that book of maps. Maybe one of those sections that you rarely turn to. You know that it's back there, but you've never really looked at it. They're there frequently because they're valuable tools, they're helpful to you. Oftentimes, when that guy on Sunday is up there droning away, and you're looking for something enjoyable, at least I find people at our church flipping to the maps a lot.
I happen to have in my Bible one that's titled Palestine in the time of Jesus, and that's the ideal map for this application. As you look at that map, or you get that sense of Palestine, especially in Jesus' day, you'll see Galilee up at the top of the page, or the north, you'll see Judea down at the bottom. Right smack in the middle, you will see Samaria.
That area of Palestine in Jesus' time is about 120 miles long. In about 700 BC, the Assyrians conquered this area. They took the northern half, the northern ten tribes, and then the southern half, and this middle ground was, in a sense, the demilitarized zone, and that's Samaria. The Assyrians hung out there, there's a residue of the Jews that hang out there, and after a period of time, the inevitable takes place, and they begin to intermarry. The minute that they do this, they have violated God's law, and they are immediately condemned by the Orthodox Jews for this violation.
Consequently, the Samaritans, the people of Samaria, as well as just the geographical area, were avoided at all costs. There were three routes from the north to south, or south to north, one along the sea, one inland. They were longer routes. The shortest one was right through Samaria. But the Jews despised these people. There's animosity here, hatred here, certainly a degree of superiority that the Jews would have toward these people.
Jesus' Intentional Journey Through Samaria
In that context, I think it's significant that John points out, Jesus goes through this. You get a sense that, again, chapter four, verse one, when therefore the Lord knew this, that there may have been a sense of immediacy to it, to His departure. So it may have been that He took the shortest route, simply because He wanted to get from point A to point B as fast as He could. Regardless of it, He has this divine appointment, this time, this meeting with this woman. We're told that in this land is this parcel of ground that Jacob gave to Joseph, and there is Jacob's well.
So there's the history. Jesus arrives at this place. He again is in Samaria. Look at verse seven, there came a woman from Samaria to drink water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
The Shocking Nature of This Encounter
I think as we read this, just with our background and probably lack of insight, not because we're stupid, but just out of ignorance, and we're just not exposed to it, we might miss the drama here. But it should be able to begin to surface this pretty quickly. If you understand that the Jews hated the Samaritans, and now you add to it, there's now here a woman. You need to understand this, the Jews would have very little to do with Samaritans. Nothing really. And they have nothing to do with the women.
Something's happening that's interesting there in verse eight. John says that the disciples had gone into the city to buy food. That is another extraordinary move on the part of these Jews. Not only would they have no contact with them, they're obviously not going to have any commerce with them. It may be, I don't know, this is reading into the scripture, so at least I'm telling you this up front, it may be that just from spending time with Jesus, it may be that they're beginning to understand that He is here to break down barriers, not build them up.
Jesus: The Barrier Breaker
That's what's so amusing to me when people talk about the Christian faith, the fundamental Christian faith, and try to label it, the idea that somehow it's bigoted, or puts people down, or that somehow it's very chauvinistic. Exactly the opposite. It comes along at a time when women were truly, not just they couldn't get into Augusta, I mean they were really persecuted then. I know that's excruciating hardship, but this was even worse. At this moment, Jesus is the one who shatters these barriers. There's no better example of that than right here. He breaks these walls down. He initiates this conversation.
Verse 9 and 10: And the woman therefore said to Him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews would have no dealing with the Samaritans. And Jesus answered her. And He said, If you knew the gift of God, who it was that said to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.
She understands this to some degree at this moment. Now this is really significant here. We've heard Jesus, and if you read through, you'll hear Him called the Rabbi, or Teacher. The Rabbis, the Teachers, would not even speak, forget Samaritan, they would not even speak to a woman in public. Their wife, their mother, their daughter. There was a little subset of the Pharisees called the bruised and bleeding Pharisees. The reason they got this name is, as they would walk through town, not only not speak, if they saw a woman, they would close their eyes, and consequently, they're walking into pillars and posts, and they're bleeding, and they're bruised. So obviously what she senses is accurate, in terms of this whole thing. Here's this Jew, and He's speaking to me.
Physical Versus Spiritual Truth
But even then, it's deeper than that. Jesus says, listen, I'm thirsty, give me a drink. Remember last week when we looked at Nicodemus, Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, and Nicodemus said to Him, this isn't going to work, how am I going to climb into my mother's womb again, I'm old. Nicodemus was operating on this physical plane, and Jesus was about to teach him some spiritual truth. You have exactly the same thing here. Jesus comes in contact with this gal.
It's also interesting, I think, to note, and I hope it's not doing injustice to the text, and I hope the application's okay, is that there came a woman from Samaria. Now if you read that sentence, there would be
Nothing there would look unusual to you. This would be the normal process, at least from our reading. But in reality, the normal process is that a woman would almost never go out for this task by herself. They would tend to do this in groups. She's there by herself. Why is that?
Well, it could just be that they needed the water and now it's time. Let me suggest to you also, though, and I think this is important, that we're going to find out that this is not the upper echelon of Samaritan society, this lady. We're going to discover pretty quickly that she's a lady of questionable reputation. It may be that she has been so shunned by everyone around her, so isolated, and then what my understanding of humans as I watch them is, as that shame and guilt begins to set in, now not only do you feel a little bit shunned, you feel a little bit of guilt, so you don't want to have to do anything with anybody. So now she's just operating on her own.
Whatever the case, it doesn't matter in terms of background. She is at the moment of divine appointment. She is there. Jesus says to her, "Give me a drink." Jesus opens this whole conversation.
Jesus Breaks Through Social Barriers
He does not come back and say, "I assume you understand why. Let me give you the history of this. It's for good reason that there's animosity. You understand what kind of a person you are and where you're from." She says, "Listen, you're a Jew. Jews don't have anything to do with us." Jesus says, "Listen, give me a drink."
Let me just point it out and then move on, because I know it's not in the text. But Jesus has become very comfortable here in reaching out to people that many might be uncomfortable reaching out to. Any chance, just in your life, that you've reached this comfort zone where there are your version of the Samaritan woman and you're not going to have anything to do with them? It may be an economic problem. It may be a societal problem of some sort. They go to the wrong school, part of the wrong group, work at the wrong place, whatever. But Jesus just slams through that barrier and He says, "Give me a drink."
She says, "What's the deal? Why are you talking to me?" He said, "Listen, if you knew the gift of God who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water."
The Significance of Jacob's Well
Verse 11, Jesus begins to expand this. She said to Him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep." Now I said earlier, this is referred to as Jacob's well. Jacob purchases this piece of land. It's recorded in Genesis 33. In Genesis 48, on his deathbed, he bequeaths this to Joseph. In Joshua 24, we discover that Joseph dies and he is taken from Egypt back to this area and buried here. So this is a very important place in Jewish history.
It is not a spring. The water is not bubbling up to the surface and active and moving. It is a well. It's a deep well, about a hundred feet deep. She says to Jesus, and obviously this well has been important for a long period of time—we're looking at hundreds of years here—"Wait a minute, how are you going to give me anything to drink? You don't even have a bucket. How are you going to get the water out of there?" Seems to be a huge problem. It's the simplest thing.
"What's going to happen here? And where did you get this idea of living water? You're not greater than our father Jacob, are you? Who gave us this well and drank it himself and his sons and his cattle."
Living Water vs. Ordinary Water
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks of the water, this water," and He's speaking of this water here in Jacob's well, "they thirst again. But the water that I shall give them shall become in him a well of water springing up in eternal life."
A couple of points here. Jesus speaks right away of her condition, understanding who she is, crossing the barrier, and willing to speak to her about spiritual things. We know, we're looking back, we know when He's talking about living water, and this is water in a well and you thirst again. We know all that. We know that He's talking about Himself. He's talking about the indwelling Holy Spirit that's available to Christians. And that if I participate in this, I will never thirst again.
I can have a lot of fun with this. You can point that out. The title of this series is The Essence of Life. And every person, place, or thing in your life, whatever it is, though it may satisfy a legitimate need, you need to go back again.
The Temporary Nature of Earthly Satisfaction
Last night, I was very hungry. Susan had a crock pot of pork chops there. I walked in and you could smell them. I said, "These are really good. This is a good thing. I'm hungry." She said, "Well, I think Haley and Tyler may come over for dinner." I said, "Well, I'll make sure there's some left for them." She said, "Tom, do you think we should wait for them?" I said, "Well, I think this is a decision that we need to make independently. You can wait for them. I'll be eating."
I'm hungry. I ate those and she said, "How do they taste?" I said, "Susan, they are terrific. These are the best. These are so good. These are terrific." I was so satisfied. I was just done. I got a little bottle of water. I was all done. I was absolutely satisfied. Right now, I'm as hungry as I was last night.
So I had a need and it met, but I'm hungry again. Or you take a drink and you're thirsty again. We can apply that to all areas of your life. Oh, if I can just get that green jacket. Well, now he has it. I'm telling you, there's a period of time here, it may be a week, it may be a month, it may be a year, at which he's going, "This doesn't make any sense. I've got the green jacket, why am I not happy here?" Or I win this, or I do this, or I go over here, or I close this deal.
Frequently, I will talk to people, and I'm not saying regularly, but it will happen once a year, every other year, where there will be some friend who's got all that you would think life offers, and yet there's still—
There's something missing in people's lives, and yet you'd never know it. Then all of a sudden, one night, they'll kill themselves. Everybody goes, "Wow, how? Why?" Well, they said they believed this, they said that life and the meaning of life is found in Christ and Christ alone, and they don't have Christ. I don't care how big the smile is, they're not happy. They're driven. They have an insatiable appetite.
That's what Jesus is saying here. You're going to drink this thing, and drink this thing, and drink this thing, but I've got living water. All of a sudden, you're free from the bondage of the stuff of this world. It doesn't mean we don't try to achieve, it doesn't mean we don't do our best, it doesn't mean we don't try to win or succeed or all those things, but we don't find meaning there. All of a sudden, all of our life is permeated with this truth.
Faith That Actually Affects How We Live
In 1960, in the midst of the presidential election, John Kennedy was running for president. The big issue then was, this is a Catholic, if John Kennedy is elected president, the Pope will be living in the Lincoln bedroom. Well, there wasn't room in the Lincoln bedroom for the Pope. So John Kennedy goes down into the Bible Belt, into Texas. He meets with several hundred Protestant ministers, and he does this to have them rest assured that the Pope isn't going to run the United States.
In the course of this, he makes a comment very similar to this: "I want you to know that you have no reason to be concerned, because my faith will not affect the way I govern." That's what he said. And he certainly lived that way. He was true to his word, if we want to give him credit for that.
You have a president now who I think would say, "No, my faith is a central part of the way I govern, because it's a central part of the way I live." Can you imagine how stupid, and they applaud this? These guys sit around and go, "That's very good, very good." What do you believe is going to affect how he behaves? How do you applaud that?
Can you imagine interviewing somebody and saying, "Tell me about yourself?" "Well, I'm a man of integrity. I've got a set of values, and they're strong, and they're real. But I want you to know, as your employee, they will not affect the way I work for you." Really? What Jesus is saying here, I think, is all of your life is going to be affected by this.
The Timing of Sharing Truth
I'll give you one other thing, and this is a side point, but I want you to see, because I hear often times, "You know what, here's what I want to do. I'm going to share my faith with these guys, but I've got to build a relationship." Do you see Jesus didn't spend four years getting to know this woman before He shares the truth? I'm not saying that building relationships is wrong, I'm just saying that's not what it is here. There are other places where it may flesh out differently, but do you see that? He just comes along and He says, "Listen, let's get down to it right now."
So there's an appropriateness, whatever it is. You're going to have to figure that out on your own. You're going to be sensitive to that. But I do think this is worth considering.
I had a buddy who had a friend, and they're in the process of putting together this outreach lunch. They're going to bring in a speaker, and the speaker's going to talk about his faith, and they're going to bring non-Christians in. He said, "Are you coming?" And his friend said, "No, I'm not coming. I don't have anybody to bring." He said, "Well, I thought you golfed with three guys who aren't Christians." He said, "I do. But this would violate our agreement." He said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well, I have an agreement with them that I won't bring up my faith in the course of our relationship."
My friend said to him, "Why would you invest time in a relationship where you can never talk about the things that really matter?" I think you need to look at that. I think that's fair game. I don't think I need to ram things down people's throats, but I mean, how are we going to talk about our phone bill forever, and how about Augusta, and what about those Diamondbacks, and what do you think will happen in the playoff? Then we have all that going on, and then we say to one another, "All our relationships are surface, but don't talk to me about the one thing that really matters." How stupid is that?
The Woman's Response
Jesus begins to speak to her, and He says this in verse 15: "The woman said to Him, 'Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all this way to draw.'" She's saying, "Bring it on." If you've got water, I see two things. Number one, I'm not going to have to come out here every day and draw this water. That's a good thing to me. Number two, I would love to be in a situation where I'm never going to thirst again.
The Challenge of Talking About Sin
I am, and I believe I'm a good representative of the human kind. I am a person who likes extremes. I find it very hard to hit that middle very often. When we're talking to people who aren't Christians, I have a tendency to focus on sin, sin, sin, your sin, your sin, your sin. And I think that's good.
I think I said it last week, if not in here, I think it was on the tape, that I'm convinced that our number one barrier in speaking to people is not Jesus anymore, it's just having that person understand they're sinful. Because I don't care who it is. It does not matter who that person is. When they're all done, they'll say, "Well, I'm not perfect. Nobody is."
My point is, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. Total depravity of man. Very good. You got it. They don't mean it that way. They mean to deflect that idea of sin. So consequently, it seems to me, we need to talk a lot about sin.
sin. Jesus is going to talk about sin, but it's interesting in the sequence here, and I'm not saying it's everywhere, but in this sequence, he talks first about the benefit. Is it wrong to sit down with somebody and say, would you like to go to heaven? My sense would be, no. That there's a craving and a desire in people, understanding that death is inevitable, to try to figure out what happens afterwards.
We got two or three shows on TV right now running during the day where you turn it on, and this guy is there saying, "Is there somebody here named Betty? Betty, have you got, does the letter Q mean anything to you? Quentin? Quentin? Is there a Quentin? Yeah, you had a rat. You had a pet rat named Quentin, didn't you? Well, Quentin's sending back positive vibes. Thank you for the cheese. That's what Quentin said to you, so you can rest again." Whatever that is.
Jesus goes right and says, "Listen, there's heaven out there," and that's okay. Here's the benefit. There's nothing wrong with talking about this. Let me say it again, because the point we made a minute ago. You can take it to the bank: unless somebody knows Christ, they're, at their core, miserable.
The Emptiness of Worldly Success
There was a scene a few years ago in Buckingham Palace, where you had Princess Diana sleeping at one end of the palace, and Charles at the other. You got Fergie at one end, and Andrew at the other, and according to the tabloids, you got Princess Anne, who's having an affair with a guard because her husband's having an affair.
Now I believe, don't know because I wasn't there, I believe one day, when Fergie, early on, and Di are having tea, they're looking at each other, and all of a sudden, they start to laugh and say, "We have hit the mother lode here." Fergie may say, "Your guy's got a bigger nose than my guy, but we're going to be okay."
You know what they reported? Those that are in, you know what they said? They said they had become, speaking of Di and Fergie, bored. They were bored. And every person, and I mean the most devout Christian, in the back of their mind would say, "How could they be bored? Look at the palace, look at the getting away to Windsor, look at all the things that go with it, and they're bored." Why would they be bored? Because the essence of life isn't found in a place, or a person, or a thing. It's in Christ. And that's what He's speaking to this woman.
This message, you may go, "Oh, this is to the woman at the well, this is a poor woman, a Samaritan woman, a despised woman." That same message preaches to the CEO of the top 500 companies in America, or to the actresses, or the actors, or anybody that you look at and you say, "Oh, they're heroes," somebody that you put a poster on your wall. And they are miserable too.
Jesus Exposes Her Condition
And now Jesus exposes her condition. He said to her, "Go call your husband and tell him to come here." And she said, "I don't have a husband." Verse 17: "And He said, you've said this well. When you say I have no husband, you've had five husbands, and the one you're with now is not your husband. What you have said is true."
Jesus now exposes her sin. You have to deal with sin at some point. You have to deal with sin in a person's life. While we understand that the word gospel, or the phrase gospel, means good news, the good news has to ultimately be preceded by the bad news. And the bad news is you're a sinner.
We don't want to hear it. We don't want to talk about it. We'll acknowledge mistakes. We'll acknowledge foibles. We'll acknowledge bad judgment. We may even use the word sin. But until we begin to see this sin as God sees this sin, we're never going to respond, and we're never going to grow with Him.
I think, as a body of Christ, and I'm talking about believers now, as believers, I'm convinced one of the greatest obstacles we have in our Christian life is we just don't have a very high view of sin. And we're very comfortable with it. And Jesus exposes this. And she's a little mystified by that.
God's Perfect Knowledge
Can I remind you of something that's a very basic truth here? Jesus is God-man. While He takes on some human limitations, He's still God. And it's important, I think, for you to remember, and I find it helpful and encouraging, that God knows tomorrow better than you know yesterday. God understands tomorrow.
Listen to a Christian talk radio show. This gal calls in. And she's all upset. She's very, very upset. She said, "I'm afraid my husband is going to be an alcoholic." And she begins to cry. I mean, I understand it's emotion that's hurt. And they said, "Well, why do you think..." "Well, his father's an alcoholic. His brother's an alcoholic. Another brother's a drug addict."
And so they said to her, "Does he drink? Is he drinking to excess?" And she said, "No. No, once in a while. We just had a very successful business deal and it closed. But he's a workaholic. He drinks coffee by the pot." And they said, "Well, will he go to counseling?" And she said, "No, he won't go to counseling." And they said, "These are the toughest kinds when they're in denial."
Denial? Denial of what? They said, "You may need to do intervention." And all I could think of is, here's this guy after 14 hours coming home, after about eight pots of coffee, and she sits him down with his friends to say, "We're going to intervene." And he's going to say, "I'll intervene you to the moon, Alice. What are you talking about?"
The Answer Is Christ
Everything now is therapeutic. I'm not saying there aren't real problems. I'm just saying the answer is Christ. You're depressed, you're discouraged, you're downcast. Here's what the Scripture said: "Why so downcast, oh my soul, put your trust in God." He knows tomorrow perfectly, and you can't figure out yesterday at all. That's the whole process here.
And He goes right to her. And again, I wanted you to see, it's the loving thing to do when Jesus confronts the rich young ruler. And the rich young
ruler comes and says, "What do I have to do to go to heaven?" And Jesus says, "Keep the commandments." Remember the story? "Keep the commandments." And the rich young ruler says, "Boy, am I glad you said that, because I've done all that. I've got it all figured out."
And Jesus says to him, well, first of all, Luke says Jesus loved him. What do you do with somebody you really love? I really do think we've reached a time where we say, "Oh, I need to earn the right to be heard. I need to move gently." Jesus loved him. Therefore, He said to him, "Sell everything and give it to the poor."
Jesus wasn't teaching salvation by philanthropy. Jesus was teaching this man that while he said he kept all the commandments, he's broken the first one because his things are more important to him than his God. See, if you love somebody, Jesus loves the woman at the well. If you love the friend you golf with, if you love the gal you shop with, if you love the person you work with, if you love your family, if you love your spouse, you're going to tell them, here's the truth. And it's a very difficult thing.
The Challenge of Easter Sunday
We've got this coming up Sunday with Easter. Every church that's represented here, they will be jammed, hanging out the door with people. And I try to make the point every year that many of you are here at the invitation of others and you're here because somebody loves you enough to bring you here for a very important reason. They know that spiritually you have not embraced the truth of God's word. And consequently, if you die in that state, you spend eternity separated from God in a place called hell.
That's what Jesus is talking about. Jesus comes back again and again and again to eternal life. Now He begins to eliminate the confusion.
Moving Beyond Religion to Relationship
Look at verse 19. "The woman said, 'Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. And you say, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where you ought to worship.' Jesus said, 'Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither this mountain nor Jerusalem is where you're going to worship. You worship that which you do not know. We worship that one true God we know for salvation from the Jews. But an hour is coming and is now when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For such people the Father seeks to be His worshiper. God is spirit. And those who worship Him, worship Him in spirit and truth.'"
Look what she does. It's the natural human reflex. She's confronted with her sin and she goes right to religion. "What do I got to do?" The Philippian jailer understands his sin. "What must I do to be saved?" We go right to religion. That's what we want. We love religion. "Do this. Don't do that."
I mentioned to you just a second ago, the churches will be filled on Easter. They're filled on Christmas. Why are they filled on those two times? I honestly believe that people like to come on those two times so they can walk away and say, "You know what? I fulfilled a tradition or I fulfilled an obligation. See, I'm not a total derelict. I've been here. I'm willing to come." It's not meaningful to them.
Jesus comes right to it. Eliminates confusion. Takes her away from religion. He says, "Listen, the Jews are worshiping that temple. That temple is going to be destroyed in three, four decades from now. We don't worship in a place. It's not a place. It's a relationship. It's not a religion. It's a relationship."
The Transformation of True Belief
I know Him. My heart and my life is restored. I'm born again. "Don't be conformed to this world," Paul says, "but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Transformed by this knowledge. John talks about believing and now I believe.
How do I know I have true belief, saving belief? I'm renewed. My life changes. I see things differently. And now, all of a sudden, there's a commitment in this process.
The Great Revelation
Verse 25: "The woman said to Him, 'I know the Messiah is coming. And when the one comes, He will declare all things to us.'" She knew about the Messiah. They knew about the Christ. They knew the teaching.
"And Jesus said, 'I who speak to you am He.'" Again, that word "He" is added. You'll see it in your scripture. It's in italics. It's added. The translator adds that for meaning. It would be, "I who speak to you am." And that would be the same as "I am Yahweh." And they would know.
And she's saying, "This is it." Imagine the moment. It comes and it comes and it comes. And there's this gigantic revelation over a hundred of years. And she's heard this. And she's sitting at this well. And in this brief encounter, all of a sudden, this guy has told her what's in her heart, what's in her mind. And she says, "Is there any chance here? First it was just get me a drink. And then it was just hang out. And then it was you're a prophet. And now we're talking Messiah. Is it possible? Perhaps. Could it be?" And Jesus said, "It is me."
The Bold Witness of a Changed Life
And away she goes. The disciples come back in verse 27. Perhaps if they had been there, this conversation would have never taken place. They come back. Verse 28: "The woman left her water pot, went into the city and said to the men, 'Come. Come see a man who told me all the things I had done. This is not the Christ, is it?' And they went out of the city and were coming to Him."
I want to go back to what I talked about before. This woman is at the bottom. She's a whore. Five guys. Got a guy going. Out there by herself. My sense is she's been rejected by the city and they all know who she is. And I'm guessing that when this chick goes walking through town to give Bible lessons, I'm guessing that's not her natural flinch. And I'm guessing not many people listen.
See, when you come to Christ in repentance and faith, and you experience that freedom from the guilt and the freedom from the shame, there's a boldness that comes.
along. She's not embarrassed. She knows full well that they could well say to her, "Who do you think you are? You've slept with half this town." There's a proclamation there.
And I'll tell you something else. Not in the text, but it has to be true. There must have been something compelling about the way she shared. Don't you think? Because they hear her. And what do they do? They move. They go. They're on their way out to the city.
The Town Believes
And from the city, verse 39, "from the city, many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified," the word that said, "He told me all the things that I've done." When the Samaritans came to Him, they were asking Him to stay with them, and He stayed with them two days. And now, many more of them believe, verse 41 and 42, and many more believe because of His word. And they were saying to the woman, "It's no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know this is the one. This is indeed the Savior of the world."
What a magnificent story. That's what I said at the very beginning. With all sorts of different applications. And you're going to have to apply that to the specific area of your life.
Finding True Satisfaction
I can tell you this, if you're here and you're not a Christian, or if you're here and you are a Christian, and you're trying to find ultimate satisfaction in the world, or the things of the world, or even, let me add this, or even good things. Maybe you're here and you're trying to find satisfaction in religion. And you're really, really, really dazzled by this. Befuddled.
You go to church regularly, maybe two, three, four times a week. You pray. Prescription of prayer. Maybe even read this word or devotional books. And yet, something's missing. There isn't a joy. There isn't a connection. There isn't love. There you go. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. It's not there. Something's missing.
What is it? My suspicion would be, it's that either, A, you don't have a relationship with Christ at all, in which we need to call you to repentance. You need to believe. Understand who Jesus is and believe. Not just with your head, but with your heart. And it transforms the way you live.
When Christians Lose Focus
Or you're a Christian, and you have somehow taken your eye off the target, and your eye off the truth, and you're no longer looking to Him to satisfy your needs, but you're looking to the world and the things of the world. And I'll tell you what, you are doomed to be miserable. You're worse off than the other guy. Because you're pursuing something that you've acknowledged won't make you happy.
And there's going to be a day, a moment in time, don't know when, when all of a sudden you're going to sit there and say, "This is absolutely stupid. I'm saying that what really matters to me is my faith, and my family, and my friends, and this truth, and this Word, and yet I'm investing all my time, energy, effort, money in this stuff, and places, and things, and I'm miserable." And you are spiritually schizophrenic at this point. And you're miserable.
Maybe you're here today and you're miserable. And you're a Christian. Maybe you need to be reminded that God knows tomorrow better than you knew yesterday. Maybe it's just that your living water, that Spirit in you, has not been nurtured through prayer and study. And so it's a call to repentance on your part.
A Call to Repentance
We don't just call non-believers to repentance. Repentance is an ongoing thing for all believers. Here you go. You can stop repenting when you stop sinning. Then we're done with repentance. Pick up there next week.
Father, help us see this truth for those who are here who are perhaps in a position similar to the woman at the well. Maybe wondering and questioning and they just don't know. Open their eyes to see the truth for those that are here that have said Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Savior, and they've believed. And now the difficulties of life are starting to crowd in around them. Give them peace. But that peace is not some sort of a synthetic peace. It's peace that flows from their obedience. Spending time in Your Word with Your people in prayer.
God, also, we pray that You'd give us a boldness that Jesus had. Let us be willing to share answers with those who ask. God, we ask it of You in Christ's name. Amen.
Have a great week. We'll see you next week.