The woman who came to the well of living waters

Series: Close Encounters

“The Woman Who Came to the Well of Living Waters”

(Sunday Morning October 4th, 2009)

Passage: John 4:7-26

O.S. I Want to Begin This Sermon This Morning by Telling You About a Dramatic Event That Occurred in Chapter 7 of This Same Gospel

It Occurred During the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths as It is Sometimes Called

This Was a Wonderful Joyous Time of Celebration That Took Place After the Fall Harvest Had Been Completed

In Fact, It Was Such a Festive Occasion That the Prophet Zechariah Used It as a Symbol of the Glorious Future of Israel in the 14th Chapter of His Book

And It Was Always Well-Attended, Because Every Hebrew Male Within Twenty Miles of Jerusalem Was Required to be There

Jesus Had Left Jerusalem His Disciples, Because the Jewish Leaders Had Become Jealous of His Popularity and They Were Plotting to Kill Him (John 14:1-3)

But He Suddenly Emerged Again at the Temple at a Very Significant Time

For You See, There Was a Ceremony That Took Place Every Day for Seven Straight Days That Involved This Large Multitude of People

They Would Show Up at the Temple in the Morning With a Citrus Fruit in Their Left Hand Called “A Paradise Apple” Which Symbolized Their Bountiful Blessings in the Land of Promise

And in Their Right Hand, They Would Have Three Branches, One From a Palm Tree, One From a Willow Tree, and One From a Myrtle Tree (Elaborate)

After This Multitude of People Had Gathered There, the Priest Would Take a Golden Pitcher, and the People Would Follow Him to the Pool of Siloam

There He Would Dip the Pitcher Into the Pool and Draw Out Some Water; and Then, the People Would Recite Isaiah 12:3 Which Says “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation”

St = The Priest Would Then Lead the People Back to the Temple, and After Three Loud Blasts From Silver Trumpets Had Sounded, He Would Enter Thru the Watergate

Then, He Would Circle the Altar Once, Ascend With the Accompanying Priests to the Platform, and Begin to Pour the Water Out

The People Would All Shout “Hold It Higher,” Which He Would Attempt to Do, Because It Was Considered to be the Height of an Israelite’s Life to Witness This Event

Then, There Would be a Dramatic Pause Just Before He Would Pour the Rest of the Water Onto the Altar

Now, Listen Carefully, Because This is What I Want You to Hear

It Was Right at This Precise Moment, During That Dramatic Pause, on the Last Day of This Feast, That Jesus Showed Up at the Temple Again

And We are Told in John 7:37-38 That He Raised His Voice, and He Made This Statement; He Said, “…' If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ' From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'"

That Was Both a Bold Challenge to Judaism and a Bold Declaration of His Deity

For You See, Listen, to Claim to be the Source of Living Waters Was to Claim to be the Divine One Who Could Satisfy the Spiritual Thirst of God’s People

This Went All the Way Back to When God Miraculously Provided Water Out of a Rock for His People While They Were in the Wilderness

Moses, as Some of You May Recall, Was Not Allowed to Enter Into the Promised Land, Because He Struck That Rock Twice With His Rod

Q.n = And Why Did God Chastise Moses so Severely?

Ans = Because That Rock Was a Symbol of Christ

In Jeremiah 2:13, the Prophet Jeremiah Spoke for the Lord and He Said This; He Said,“"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, (Listen) the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water”

St = So, as You Can See, for Jesus to Claim to be the Source of Living Waters Was an Unmistakable Declaration of His Deity

And Every Bible Scholar Should Know That John’s Purpose in Writing This Gospel Was to Prove to Everyone That Jesus is the Divine Son of God

That is Why He Included That Particular Event That I Just Described for You in His Gospel

And That is Also Why He Included This Encounter That Jesus Had With a Samaritan Woman at a Well About a Half a Mile Outside
of a Small City Called Sychar

This is the First Time That Jesus Told Anyone That He is the Source of the Living Waters That Can Satisfy the Human Soul

And He Also Made Some Other Very Well Timed Statements About His Deity as We Will All See in Just a Few Minutes

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ __

T.S. So, With This in Mind, I Have Decided to Divide This Narrative Passage Into Two Parts

I. The Passionate Nature of This Encounter

II. The Providential Nature of This Encounter

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I. The Passionate Nature of This Encounter

1) His Spiritual Perception

We are Told in Luke 19:10 That Jesus Came to Seek and to Save Those Who are Lost

And So, We Should Not be Surprised About the Fact That Jesus Was a Great Personal Evangelist

Last Week, We Examined His Encounter With Nicodemus, and We Have Some Good Reasons for Believing That Nicodemus Eventually Trusted Christ as His Savior (Elaborate = Myrrh and Aloes = John 19:39)

In Luke 19, Jesus Invited Himself to go to Zaccheus’ Home; and Then, Jesus Himself Tells Us That This Resulted in Zaccheus Receiving Salvation (Elaborate = Generosity)

vs 31-34 (Read) – Elaborate = Point = This is What He Was Passionate About

And in Matthew 23:37, We are Told That Jesus Became so Overcome With Emotion Because of the Fact That the Jews Had Rejected Him That He Began to Weep Convulsively, and He Cried Out…"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling”

Moreover, Jesus Did Not Discriminate; He Reached Out to Every Kind of Person Imaginable: Rich and Poor, Jew and Gentile, Male and Female, Freeman and Slave

In Fact, There Could Not be a Greater Contrast Between Nicodemus, Who Jesus Witnessed to in John 3, and This Woman Who is Described for Us in John 4

1. Nicodemus Was a Man - This Was a Woman

2. Nicodemus Was a Jew - This Woman Was a Samaritan

3. Nicodemus Was a Pharisee - This Woman Was Not Religious

4. Nicodemus Was a Scholar - This Woman Was Uneducated

5. Nicodemus Was Very Moral - This Woman Was Very Immoral

6. Nicodemus Had a Name - This Woman Was Nameless

You See, the Good News is That Jesus Loves Everyone, and I am Convinced That His Desire is for Every Man and Woman to Repent of Their Sins, to Receive Him as Their Personal Lord and Savior and to Inherit Eternal Life (Can I Get a Witness?)

2) His Social Perspective

The Fact That Jesus Had to Cross Several Social Barriers to Witness to This Woman is Obviously Being Emphasized Here

a. First, We are Told That This Was a Samaritan

This Was the Biggest Social Barrier of All, and That is Why the Word “Samaria” Appears Six Times in Verses 4 Through 9

In Fact, I Want You to Look at Verse 9 With Me, and I Want You to Notice What She Said to Jesus After He Asked Her to Give Him a Drink; She Said, “…' How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?..."

And Then, John Adds, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans”

By the Way, That Word “Dealings” is an Interesting Work in the Original Greek; It is the Word “Sunchraomai,” and This is What It Literally Means

It Means “To Use Vessels Together”

So, This is What Really Shook Her Up

She Could Not Believe That a Jew Would Want to Take a Drink Out of Her Pitcher

For You See, Listen, There Could Not Have Been a Stronger Prejudice Than This One That Existed Between the Jews and the Samaritans

This Was a Racial and a Social Feud That Had Gone on for Four Centuries

It Began in 722 B.C. When the City of Samaria Was Conquered by the Assyrians

The Israelites Were Dispersed, But Some of Them Remained in Samaria, and They Began to Intermarry With the Assyrians

But of Course, This Did Not Go Over Very Well With Orthodox Jews

St = And Then, in 444 B.C., Ezra Returned to Build a Temple in the City of Jerusalem, the Samaritans Offered to Help, But Ezra Called Them “Enemies” and Refused to Let Them be a Part of What They Were Doing (Ezra 4)

So, the Samaritans Responded by Erecting a Rival Temple at Mt Gerazim;

And Then, in 128 B.C., a Jew Named Hyrcannus Came Over to Samaria and Tore That Temple Down

This Prejudice Was so Strong That Jews Would Not Even Travel Through Samaria

Samaria Was Sandwiched Between Judea in the South and Galilee in the North

And So, an Orthodox Jew Would Cross the Jordan and go Up the Eastern Side of the River and Recross the Jordan on the North Side Just so That It Could Not be Said That He Had Gone Through This Despised Region Called Samaria

T.S. a. First, We are Told That This Was a Samaritan

b. Second, We are Told That This Was a Woman

And in That Day and Time, It Was Not Considered to be Appropriate for a Man to Speak to a Woman in Public

In Fact, One of the Prominent Rabbis of That Day Said This; He Said, “Let no man talk with a woman on the streets. No, not even with his own

wife, or daughter, or sister, NEVER A SAMARITAN”

We Can Pick Up on This Again in Verse 27, Because There We are Told That the Disciples Were Amazed by the Fact That He Was Speaking With a Woman

Not by the Fact That He Was Speaking to This Particular Woman, But Simply by the Fact That He Was Speaking to “A” Woman

There Were Some Pharisees, as I Mentioned Last Week, Who Took This so Seriously That They Would Not Even Look at a Woman in Public

And Consequently, They Became Known as “The Bruised and Bleeding Pharisees,” Because They Would Close Their Eyes and Run Into Buildings

St = This is Why I Get Irritated When I Hear Some Left-Wing Feminist Talk About How Christianity Has Held Women Down

Q.n = Listen to Me, are You Listening?

It Was Not Until Jesus Christ Came That a Woman Was Given Her Proper Place in the World

And Jesus Has Done More to Elevate the Status of Women in This World Than Any Other Man in History

Moreover, the Apostle Paul, Who is Often Accused of Being a Male Chauvinist Affirmed the Equality of Women in Galatians 3:28 When He Said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”

A Woman in the Muslim Country of Iraq is Not Given That Kind of Status; They’re Not Even Allowed to go Out in Public Unless Their Face is Veiled

In India, Where Hinduism is the Most Prevalent Religion, and the People Believe in Reincarnation; This is What They Actually Teach; They Say,

· If You’ve Been Bad in This Life, You Will Might Come Back as a Dog

· If You’ve Been Worse Than That, You Might Come Back as a Spider

· And if You’ve Been Really Really Bad, You Will Might Come Back as a Woman

So, Someone is Really Showing Their Ignorance When They Try to Suggest That Christianity Has Been Holding Women Back; That’s Ludicrous

T.S.

a. First, We are Told That This Was a Samaritan

b. Second, We are Told That This Was a Woman

c. Third, We are Told That This Was an Adulteress

This Woman Had Been With so Many Different Men That We are Told Here That She Finally Just Stopped Marrying Them

Yet, Here Was a Rabbi Conversing in Public With a Street Walker

Q.n = What Does This Tell Us About Jesus?

Ans = It Tells Us That He Loves All People

And This Isn’t the Only Time That We are Told in Scripture That We are Told That He Did Something Like This

In Matthew 11:19, for Example, Jesus Was Accused of Being… “…a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’…”

Q.n = Could That be Said of You?

I Can’t Speak for You, But I Can Tell You That I Feel Challenged by This Passage to Step Out of My

Comfort Zone (Can I Get a Witness?)

T.S.

1) His Spiritual Perception
2) His Social Perspective

3) His Simple Persistence

a. Jesus Appealed to Her Kindness

You See, Jesus Understood Human Nature Better Than Anyone Who Has Ever Lived Which is Why We are Told in John 2:25 That…“…He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man”

And So, He Knew That Oftentimes the Best Thing We Can do to Break Down a Barrier is to Ask for a Simple Favor

b. Jesus Appealed to Her Curiosity

vs 10 (Read)

She Responded With Skepticism and Sarcasm; She Said, “Where are You Going to Get This Water From Since You Don’t Even Have a Bucket?”

But Jesus Still Didn’t Give Up (Elaborate – Most of Us)

c. Jesus Appealed to Her Desire

vs 13-14 (Read)

By the Way, This Literally Means “To Gush Out,” and We are Told in Rev 7:17 That This Gusher Will Eventually Reach All the Way Up to Heaven; It Says “for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them (Listen) to springs of the water of life”

d. He Appealed to Her Conscience

vs 15-18 (Read)

Q.n = Now, Why Did Jesus, Who is Omniscient Insist on Going Here With This Woman?

Ans = Because Repentance is a Necessary Element of Salvation (Elaborate)

e. He Appealed to Her Heart

vs 19-20 (Read)

Now, I Believe That This Woman Was Thinking That She Needed to Get Religion

But Listen, Jesus Made It Clear to Her That God Was Not Desiring Religion or Any Kind of External Ritual

vs 22-23 (Read)

By the Way, I Want to go on Record This Morning for Saying That Religion Never Helped Anyone; in Fact, Religion is Just a Deceptive Smoke Screen

And I Believe That Jesus Was Helping This Woman Understand That What She Needed Was Not Religion; But Rather, a Personal Relationship With the Lord

II. The Providential Nature of This Encounter

The Word “Providential” Refers to Something That Has Been Prearranged in the Mind of God, and We Can See the Evidence of That Here

1) The Sovereignty of the Lord

This Can be Seen First of All in a Phrase That Appears in Verse 4 Which Simply Says “And He had to pass through Samaria”

The King James Versions Says “And he must needs go through Samaria”

That Tells Us That This Was a Divine Appointment, and It Was Not a Coincidence That This Samaritan Woman Met Jesus Came to That Well at 12 Noon on That Day

A Similar Thing Happened in Luke 19:5 When Jesus Said to Zaccheus “…hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house” (Elaborate)

Now Listen, There is Another Very Important Statement That is Found in Verse 26 But We Need to go Back to Verse 25 to Get the Full Impact of It (Read)

Q.n = Now, Why Did John Write This Gospel? Was It to Teach Us About How Jesus Witnessed to People?

Ans = Not Primarily

Listen, John Wrote This Gospel to Prove That Jesus is the Divine Son of God, and I Want You to Notice That in This Verse Jesus Called Himself “The Messiah”

Q.n = And What is That?

Ans = That is a Statement of His Deity

And Now, I Want You to Underscore That Phrase That Appears in Verse 17; It is the Phrase “At This Point”

Q.n = Do You See That?

That, My Friends, Describes a Divine Miracle of Timing

In Other Words, God Had Already Preordained the Fact That Jesus’ Disciples Would Return Just in Time to Hear Him Say That

Otherwise, We Would Never Have Known That He Said It

2) The Salvation of This Woman

We are Not Told Specifically That She Got Saved, But I Believe That the Evidence of Her Conversion is Here

a. The Confession of Her Lips

We Have Already Seen the Fact That She Admitted That She Was a Sinner

And We Know That She Had Heard Jesus Call Himself the Messiah

We Also Know That She Obviously Believed That, Because She Got so Excited That She Left Her Water pot Sitting There

And Then, We are Told That She Immediately Began Sharing Her Faith With Others

vs 29 (Read)

By the Way, I Want You to Notice That She Was Very Creative

b. The Change in Her Life

Sychar Was Just a Small Village, and News Travels Fast in a Small Village

So, We Can be Confident of the Fact That Just About Everyone Who Lived in Sychar Knew That This Was an Immoral Woman

Q.n = So, How Can We Explain the Fact That All of These Men in Sychar Believed What This Woman Had to Say About Meeting the Messiah?

Ans = The Only Reasonable Answer is That They Could See That Something About Her Was Different

This is Why Jesus Would Not Allow the Gadarene Demoniac to Become One of His Disciples, Remember That?

Instead, He Said This to Him in Mark 5:19; He Said, "Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you."

This Woman’s Witness Was Effective for the Same Reason (Elaborate)

3) The Success of This Harvest

In Verses 35, Jesus Made a Statement That Has Been Preached About at an Innumerable Number of Missions Conferences Ever Since

He Turned to His Disciples and Said, "Do you not say, 'T here are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold,I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest”

Q.n = Do You Know Why He Said That?

Ans = He Said It Because the Samaritans Were Accustomed to Wearing Long White Flowing Robes

And I Believe That They Were Coming to the Well to Meet Him in the Distance When He Said That

Q.n = So, What Was the Key to This Great Revival?

Ans = Someone Had to Sow the Seed of the Gospel

Q.n = And Who Was That?

Ans = The Samaritan Woman

So, All Jesus and His Disciples Had to do Was Reap the Harvest

And We are Told Here That the Harvest is Ready

Q.n = Isn’t That Encouraging?

Likewise, in Luke 10:2, Jesus Said, “…'T he harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’”

Listen, There is Nothing Wrong With the Harvest; All We Have to do is Find It

Because Somewhere in This City and in Every City There are People Who are Hurting and They are Searching for Some Answers

And if We Will Take the Gospel to Them, We Can be Assured of the Fact That Someone Will Respond

St = And Now, I Believe the Climax of This Whole Passage is Found in Verses 39-42; So, I Know That I Would Not be Doing This Passage Justice if We Overlooked It

Notice What It Says

vs 39-42 (Read)

So Let Me Ask You This Question Again

Q.n = Why Did John Write His Gospel?

Ans = To Prove That Jesus is the Divine Son of God

Q.n = And What Did These Men Call Him?

Ans = The Savior of the World

And That Means That He is the Source of the Living Waters

And He is the Only One Who Can Satisfy the Human Soul

By the Way, and With This I Will Close, That is the Last Invitation That is Given in the Bible

In Verse 17 of the Final Chapter of the Book of the Revelation, This Same Apostle Wrote These Words; He Said, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost”

That Means, of Course, That Salvation is a Free Gift From God That Has Been Provided for Anyone Who is Willing to Repent of Their Sins and to Place Their Faith and Trust in Jesus Christ

And That is What This Time of Invitation is All About

At This Time, We are Asking You to be Willing to Turn Your Back on a Life of Sin and to Accept Jesus Christ as Lord of Your Life

Believing in That He is the Divine Son of God Who Died on a Cruel Cross to Make an Atonement for Our Sins, and That He Was Raised From the Dead Three Days Later