The Soul winner From Sychar
The Soul Winner From Sychar
(Both ends of the spectrum)
Utawala Baptist Church
19/07/09
Scripture Reading: John 4: 7 – 10
In John chapter three and four we see Jesus dealing with two extremes.
In John 3 Jesus deals with a self-righteous Pharisee in John 4 an adulterous woman.
A VIVID CONTRAST
NICODEMUS THE WOMAN
A JEW A SAMARITAN
A MAN A WOMAN
A RELIGIOUS LEADER AN IGNORANT WOMAN
HIGHEST CLASS OUTCAST
WEALTHY POOR
RECOGNIZED JESUS HAD NO IDEA WHO JESUS WAS
They couldn’t be more different!
This isn’t just the story of the Samaritan woman!
But also and maybe more so an account of Jesus’ self-revelation as the Messiah.
Why didn’t Jesus walk into downtown Jerusalem and reveal who he was?
Rather he chose to reveal himself to the adulterous Samaritan woman!
a. Certainly He intended to show that the gospel was for the whole world not just for the Hebrew race.
b. That his ministry was for the poor outcast as well as the religious elite.
c. It was a rebuke to the Jewish leaders that their Messiah ignored them and revealed himself to a Samaritan adulteress.
When He finally did reveal himself to the Jewish leaders they did not believe Him anyway.
5 POINTS
1.The Lesson of the Well
Christ Came to Seek and Save the Lost
John 4:1-5
Verse 1 tells us the word was out about Jesus’ success.
We find that there was a problem.
The Jewish leaders had started a problem between Jesus and John the Baptist
John 1: 24
John 3:25
Jesus would allow no interference between His ministry and that of John the Baptist.
Nothing then and nothing now can be allowed to hinder the Gospel.
He left Judea not because He was afraid of the Pharisees but because He had to pass through Samaria!
Traveling through Samaria was far from normal far a Jew. Although the most direct route went through Samaria the Jews never went that way.
The Jews had their own route.
Jesus could have taken that route!
But HE Didn’t!
WHY?
Because He had to fulfill a divine appointment at Jacob’s well.
Jacob’s Well is a very historic place to this day!
Genesis 50:25
Joshua 24:29-32
Because Jesus had come to seek and save the lost! Luke 19:8-10
He was at the appointed place in God’s timing. To seek and save a single pathetic wretched woman!
2. The Lesson of the Woman
God is no respecter of Persons
John 4: 7-8
This woman was a moral outcast ostracized for society.
Give me a drink! Verse 7
Surely startled her!
Amazed the Jesus would talk to her.
The religious differences between the Jews and the Samaritans
were very serious and very deep.
Much less ask for a drink from her unclean vessel!
John 4:9-10
The Gentiles hear the “Good News”!
` Acts 10:34:35
What is right?
Ephesians 2:8-9
Notice Jesus did not allow himself to be distracted by the woman’s comment in John 4:9
Jesus was not ashamed to take a drink from the vessel of a woman for whom He had come to die!
No one not Nicodemus the Pharisees or this woman are beyond the reach of the divine love of Jesus!
NOR ARE WE TODAY!
3. The Lesson of the Water
Everyone who Thirsts May Come
John 4:11-12
The woman was thinking of literal physical water.
The woman’s use of the phrase “our father” was an offense to the Jewish teaching and belief of being Jacob’s children.
But Jesus didn’t allow himself to become diverted from the need at hand
Jesus was incomparably greater than Jacob and His water was infinitely better than Jacob’s water!
Jesus was offering living water.
Living water!
Moving flowing water!
Ritual cleansing
A requirement for a synagogue!
John 4:13-15
The offer of “living water” is not only to religious people like Nicodemus! Everyone who thirsts is invited to drink deeply of the living water even an adulterous woman!
But unfortunately people chose be the like the nation of Israel in Jeremiah’s day.
Jeremiah 2:13
4. The Lesson of True Worship
Now is the Accepted time.
John 4:16-18
The conversation goes beyond water to the heart of the matter!
John 4:19
The Samaritans were expecting a prophet ever since Deut. 18:15
John 4:21-24
True worship occurs not on a mountain top or in a temple!
Not in a temple in Jerusalem or on a mountaintop in Samaria!
BUT IN OUR HEARTS!
Jesus is not neutral here! He presents the Jewish position clearly and strongly!
John 4:25-26
Note the woman’s’ statement of faith in the coming Messiah
Jesus never revealed himself more clearly than to the Samaritan woman here in John 4 or to the blind man in John 9.
John 9:35-38
Although it is not stated clearly in the text that the woman became a believer it seems obvious that she did. Probably between verses 26 & 27.
5. Lesson of the Witness
This man receives sinners!
John 4:27-30
The woman’s response strongly suggests that she had become a believer.
She sensed her need.
Confessed her guilt
Recognized Jesus as the Messiah
Showed the fruit of her transformed life by bringing others to Jesus Christ.
Look closely at John 4:29! She presents a question.
The woman’s example a humble servant’s heart.
John 4:28
Revelations 22:17
“WITH OUT PRICE”
While it is free it is not cheap. The Savior himself paid the ultimate price so that thirsty repentant sinners can drink as deeply as they like.
The Samaritan woman, you and I!
We have the Bible bound in fine leathers! What we need is the Bible bound in shoe leather.
- S D Gordon – American writer and lecturer