Sermon Tone Analysis

Series: John: Life in Christ’s NameText: John 4:15–26

By: Shaun Marksbury Date: February 5, 2023

Venue: Living Water Baptist ChurchOccasion: AM Service

Introduction

A man came to our church in Georgia years ago.

He was a younger believer but growing in Christ, and he had a passion for evangelism.

His church engaged in evangelism outside the walls, but he was told he was doing it wrong.

He was taking people through some of the ten commandments and talking to them about the holiness of God before getting to the “good news” of the gospel, that Jesus died in the place of sinners who believe in Him, taking their guilt upon Himself.

Folks at the church said this was legalistic and wrong, that he should just talk about God’s love and the importance of believing in Jesus.

He was fairly convinced by his reading of Scripture that he was doing it the right way, but he was having a hard time finding likeminded believers.

Well, of course, one question we could ask ourselves is how Jesus Himself would evangelize.

What is the way of the master?

We see a picture of that in this morning’s text.

Really, we’ve already seen the Lord’s message in action as He speaks to her about the living water.

We could call this the first step of evangelism, turning a conversation to that of a spiritual nature.

It’s true that it’s important to be polite and to show love toward a person, but that isn’t evangelism by definition; we would have to call that pre-evangelism at best.

To evangelize is literally to “gospelize.”

So, it’s only with the turn of conversation that the actual evangelistic encounter begins.

With this turn of conversation, He is establishing her need.

As we noted last week, most people do not realize their need for spiritual water.

She is obviously in sin, and the cultural shame related to that bothers her enough to be drawing water when there is typically no one else is around the well.

However, we can’t say whether she was troubled because of how her sin appeared before God; she was most likely trying to avoid others who may judge her too harshly.

Jesus wants her to think about her life before the throne of God.

As He talks to the woman at the well, He demonstrates the evangelistic process to us.

First, we see that He calls out our sin, then He calls us to true worship, and then He calls us to Himself.

Let’s consider the first of those.

Christ Calls out Our Sin (vv.

15–18)

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”

He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”

The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”

Again, Jesus told her in the previous verse about this living water that will never thirst.

Now, she responds with the same respectful address as before, calling Him “sir.”

However, it’s not clear whether she is being respectful here.

It’s possible that she is simply confused, thinking that He is talking about some kind of physical water.

However, she’s already noted that He doesn’t have anything to get water with, and she probably doesn't think He has a secret well somewhere, so she also may be mocking Him a bit.

Of course, she’s honest about her desire to not have to draw water again.

Running water is a convenience that many of us have never considered, especially those of us who have grown up in cities and towns.

Still, many people in this area know what it means to not even have a functioning well on their property, requiring them to drive and fetch water for the household.

Add to this her apparent preference to avoid her fellow villagers, and we can certainly appreciate her desire to not having to worry about water runs.

So, whatever the nature of her comment, whether it was with confusion or derision, Jesus has her attention.

I hope that is an encouragement to you as you share your faith with others.

They may not immediately understand, and they may even mock the claims of Scripture a bit.

However, if they are not being overly derisive, still interested in talking and seem to be engaged, then continue the conversation.

However, in v. 16, Jesus utilizes a tactic that nearly all Evangelicals today with big platforms would condemn you for using.

He speaks about her personal sin.

Jesus says, “Go, call your husband and come here,” knowing very well the state in which this woman lives.

What follows is an interesting exchange.

She says, “I have no husband,” and just like in the translation, she places the word husband last.

Jesus reverses this; putting this more word-for-word, “You have correctly said, ‘Husband, I have not.’

” He quotes her words back with the word husband first, and He continues (again, with a bit more of the original word order), “for five husbands you have had.”

So, He emphasizes that word she used, and He continues, “and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”

In fact, the way He frames this statement, we suspect that she was living in an adulterous relationship — this isn’t her husband.

So, Jesus clearly highlights the nature of her sin, that she had been in and still is in illicit relationships.

Why is He driving this point home?

Before we can get the refreshment of the living water, we must understand our thirst.

We won’t drink if we’re not thirsty, which we understand in the flesh, though we often ignore our thirst in our souls or go to that which won’t satisfy.

There is a necessary call for repentance before the gospel message, and Jesus preached both repentance and faith (Mark 1:14–15).

Now, the theological reality is that no one will repent until God changes their hearts, so we’re not talking about decisional regeneration here (that the decision to turn from sin to follow Christ is what gives a person new life).

Still, just as the regeneration of the Holy Spirit leads a person to a new life, repentance necessarily accompanies salvation as He purifies us (Titus 2:14).

So, it’s not legalistic or unloving to present God’s Holy Law and explain how a person is violating it — the Holy Spirit works salvation through the preached Word, after all.

So, it is right to talk about sin when we evangelize.

The message only becomes legalistic if you leave the sinner with the impression that she must first clean up her life in order for God to save her, which Jesus doesn’t do here.

He doesn’t call her names like “harlot,” putting her down with all kinds of pejoratives which He sometimes uses of the religious who should know better.

In fact, He gives her some grace in the conversation, as we’ll see next.

Christ Calls Us to True Worship (vv.

19–24)

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

It's really no surprise that she would be so impressed with His insight.

Because He accurately described her life in uncanny detail without having met her, she concludes that He must speak for God in a prophetic role.

This is the same conclusion that many would come to (Matt.

21:11; Luke 7:16; John 6:14; 7:40; 9:17).

It’s a true statement, only not true enough.

Because she perceives that He is a prophet, she then asks Him a theological question.

Why she does is a bit beyond our ability to know for certain.

It may be that she’s somewhat embarrassed and wants to change the subject.

It may simply be that, given His obvious prophetic insight, she sees Him as someone who can settle a dispute.

One thing is for sure, if she thought this dispute was unrelated to her sin, she was in error!

She said, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

God directed the Israelites as they entered the land through Shechem to see the parallel mountains Gerizim and Ebal as a blessing and a curse, respectively (Deut.

11:29).

There, standing between the mountains, they were to see that they had a choice between the blessing or the curse of God.

Joshua acts this out by dividing the people between the two mountains in Joshua 8:33.

So, Mt.

Gerizim was an important place to their shared heritage.

So, related to this, in Deuteronomy 27:4, God tells the people, “So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime.”

However, the Samaritan version of this verse read differently — they were to set the altar up on Gerizim.

This difference alone may not have been a big deal, but the Samaritans were excluded from temple worship, as we’ve noted before.

The Samaritans also rejected all Scripture except for the five books of Moses, so any corrective the rest of God’s Word would have given them was unavailable.

So, they locked onto Gerizim as more than an important place — it was the place for worshipping God.

Some have said that Jesus isn’t interested in getting into theological disputes, but that misses an important part of what He says next.

He simply elevates this to the level of true worship.

So, He says, “Woman,” (which, again, is not a rude address in that culture) “believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”

So, instead of first stating what is the right and wrong response, He says that there is a greater worship on the horizon — one that is not bound to location.

He does weigh in, nonetheless.

He first says, “You worship what you do not know.”

They reject entire portions of inspired Scripture, so how can they know the God of Scripture?