2022.01.08 What Can We Learn?

What Can We Learn?

Psalm 5:1-8 • John 4:7–29

John 4:7–29 NASB 2020

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away to the city to buy food. 9 So the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, that a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.” 27 And at this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What are You seeking?” or, “Why are You speaking with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot and went into the city, and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is He?”

Last week, we met in the Fellowship Hall, and we discussed a story from Jesus’ life based on what I would suggest is a Discipleship Model!

A disciple isn’t someone who makes a one-time commitment and that’s it. A disciple doesn’t learn and grow to a certain point and then decide they’ve arrived at an acceptable level.

Being a disciple is a lifelong calling, and if you’ve commited to following Jesus, like it or not … you are a disciple! God’s expectation of you is that you would continue learning, growing, and following closer each day.

So, to begin this year, I’ve decided that I’m going to use this Discipleship Model as the structure for my sermons, at least for now. In order to get the most out of these messages, I would HIGHLY suggest you bring a Bible from home. Having your Bible in-hand will help you follow along, and you can also make notations, underline, or highlight if it’s your own Bible.

I’ve said this before, but if you don’t own a Bible please let me know. Without any embarrassment or big production, I will make sure a Bible that you can call your own lands in your hand in a translation you can understand. Money is not a problem. If you can’t afford a Bible, I’ll make sure you get one.

But I can’t help you if you don’t tell me. :)

Here’s the basic pattern we’ll be following the next several weeks, and possibly the entire year:

Read a Jesus Story

What do you learn about God from this story?

What do you learn about humans from this story?

What do you learn about yourself in this story?

What needs to change as a result of what you’ve learned?

So let’s jump into this story from John 4

What do you learn about GOD from this story?

Jesus knows stuff the rest of us don’t know.

This isn’t like the fake mediums of today - where they make enough generic statements and ask enough vague questions they’ll eventually stumble onto something they can use to create a belief in their abilities.

Jesus pulls specific information about this woman out of thin air. He even seems to set her up for it.

He asks her where her husband is, KNOWING that she isn’t currently married. Is this a test to see if she’ll tell the truth, or is it an opening to prove himself? We don’t know … but we do know He DOES prove himself.

So, Jesus knows stuff the rest of us don’t know.

Jesus will offer eternal life to ANYone!!!

This woman is a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans HATED each other. Many of us may know that, but does anybody know why?

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Israel divided into two kingdoms around 931 BC. Northern Kingdom (Israel) built two temples, one in Mt. Gerizim, which is the location the Samaritan woman references.

Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom (Israel) in 722 BC and laid a failed siege to Jerusalem in the Southern Kingdom (Judah) in 701 BC. Judah wasn’t conquered until around 580 BC by Nebuchadnezzar’s Chaldeans based in Babylon.

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The area of Samaria in the center became a political entity during the Assyrian conquest. The extreme Northern sectors of the former Northern Kingdom remained loyal to Jerusalem as their religious capitol. The people in Samaria intermarried with pagan people from other religions and their religious heritage became a mishmash of Judaism and all the neighboring religions. Because of this, Jews considered Samaritans at BEST half-breeds. They so hated Samaritans.

Samaritans believed the proper location for worship was Mt. Gerizim. This is the mountain the woman at the well references when she says, "our fathers worshiped on this mountain”. Jacob’s Well is one of the least disputed biblical locations in all of the Middle East, and it lies between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal. So, I would suggest there was likely some pointing that accompanied this statement.

She is not a Jerusalem Jew --- she’s a SAMARITAN! Yet, Jesus reveals himself as Messiah to her. The disciples are shocked he’s talking with a woman at all … but a SAMARITAN woman — SCANDALOUS!!! Jesus offers her the truth , and she shares it with the rest of her village.

What do you learn about GOD from this story?

So, we can learn that if Samaritans are included, everyone is included.

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 NASB 2020

14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.

Jesus will offer eternal life to ANYone!!!

God doesn’t see our dividing lines the same way we do.

What do you learn about HUMANS?

We have trouble seeing past our dividing lines.

The Samaritan woman can’t see past the Jewish-Samaritan division. The disciples can’t see past the male-female division. We tend to look at our own social barriers and we want to place those barriers on our faith.

Social divisions...

In the Old South, slaves were encouraged to become Christians … but they weren’t allowed in worship. Worship was a whites-only experience. So, slaves who converted would sit outside the church building and listen through the open windows until the time came when black-only churches were allowed.

In India, the social caste system is fully in place in many churches. The lower classes are barred from certain areas of certain church buildings, and barred totally from some churches. Even in Christian churches, people of different statuses are not supposed to marry

Political divisions...

The political division between Russia and Ukraine has spilled into their church structures. At the beginning of December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for barring the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from operating in Ukraine because their oversight comes from the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch who supports the Russian invasion. Of course, Russian propaganda quickly declared Zelensky’s administration were anti-Christian.

In the Soviet era, it would have been hard for us Americans to imagine Jesus offering eternity to Soviets … or to Ho Chi Min … or Mao Zedong ... or Saddam Hussein … or Osama Bin Laden.

Racial divisions...

In 1784, the Methodist Church was officially formed, and two black preachers were in attendance. They were made to sit in the balcony, and they had to wait to receive Communion until all of the white members had partaken first.

Gender divisions...

In 1956, the Methodist Episcopal Church became one of the first mainline denominations to grant full clergy rights to women. We’d been licensing women to preach since the earliest days of the Methodist movement. Women were being ordained in the mid-late 1800s. But 1956 was when we finally granted full clergy rights.

Humans tend to apply our human divisions onto our religions. So this woman saw no reason to consider Jesus and herself on the same level, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?”

And the disciples arrive shocked to see Jesus speaking with a woman: “...they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said…” anything.

We learn that humans find it extremely difficult to leave our own dividing lines out of our religion.

What do you learn about YOURSELF?

Here’s where this approach gets uncomfortable. Where are you in this text?

We just learned that God deals with ALL people, and that humans divide along various lines! In our better moments, we would all likely admit we’re not completely unbiased because it doesn’t seem like that’s a possible state for a human being to attain, much less maintain.

Let me encourage you to get specific with yourself and your God about this.

Where are your biases?

Are they gender related? This one is less prominent in America today, at least in Methodism … but it still exists. I can’t tell you how many people have told me that women pastors are just no good, or that women shouldn’t be pastors at all. Is that you?

How about socioeconomic? We’ve had homeless folks wander into our services before … how’s that make you feel? How about if they sit right up front? What if it was a Communion Sunday and I asked them to serve the elements? How about an exotic dancer … or an addict?

How about racial divisions? Many of you know that a church of African immigrants meets in this building Sunday afternoons. How would you feel if I asked Pastor Noah to preach for me the next time I’m gone? We’re still looking for an accompanist, what if I brought their music team to lead our singing one Sunday? Or if I proposed we start worshiping together every week?

How does politics influence your faith? Can a Republican be a Christian? Can a Democrat? Can a Christian vote for Donald Trump? Can a Christian vote for Joe Biden? You see, just like the other divisions, this is an EXTERNAL standard, and many of us … too many of us … apply these external standards to Christianity.

Jesus offers deliverance to ALL … and if we hesitate with that … we’re the ones not fit for his Kingdom.

If we can’t acknowledge and drop our human dividing lines, we are the ones unfit for God’s Kingdom.

What needs to change as a result of what you’ve learned?

Faced with our own shortcomings, here’s where we really have an opportunity to show Christian discipleship. If the goal of discipleship is to follow Jesus as closely as possible, and it’s come to our attention that a particular area exists where we’re distant from him … something HAS to change.

What needs to change?

These divisions are extremely old and very well established. It will take hard work to root them out of our own heads and hearts. So, let’s treat it like a job.

It’s easy to say I’ll remove that attitude or that concept from my head. But just saying it will never make it happen.

Whoever it is that you’ve looked at as ‘less than’ … let me propose you find a way to serve those very individuals.

If you’ve looked down on Democrats or Republicans, go to the headquarters and offer to take someone to coffee … and keep going back until you can see the humanity in “them”.

If you hesitate to think of God rescuing lost women, find an organization like the YWCA that helps women, and have coffee with some of their leaders. Tell them honestly what you feel, and that you want to get to see their humanity better so you can root out that division in yourself.

If it’s racial, go to a black church or other black organization in Terre Haute and offer to take someone to coffee. Tell them you want to get to know them better because you want to see racial divisions go away and you know that begins with seeing each other’s humanity.

Or, find a place that helps immigrants and offer to serve the organization a couple of hours a week. As you get to see the humanity in the immigrant and learn about their own condition, you’ll find your own humanity calling out to theirs.

Nothing is gonna change in this room. The best I can do is convince you of the need for change. But real change will happen outside these doors when you engage the people you hesitate to think of as God’s beloved. And if you’re bold enough to try it ... as you change, other people will be given the opportunity see a different picture of Christ’s Church: a more Jesus-like picture.

If a Samaritan woman in Jesus’ day was worthy … so are the people you’re hesitant about. I hope today’s message has helped you recognize that change needs to happen.

What Can We Learn?

What will you do about it?

Let’s pray...