A Divine Encounter

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Intro
“It’s not what you said, but how you said it.”
John 4:1–30 ESV
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on 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 the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.
John 4:39–42 ESV
Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Encountering Christ

Meets Jesus at Well
How everyday interactions can be life-changing when God is involved.
Has conversation
The rarity of this interaction. (Jews don’t associate with Samaritans)
During the exile, people from the ten tribes of Israel were removed from the land.
The Assyrian king sent foreigners into Samaria.
They brought with them their idols.
They intermarried with the Jews left.
They built their own temple, and established their own high priest, drawing a distinct division between them and the Jews.
Confronted by an eternal reality.
Jesus explains that if she knew who he was, she would be asking him for water.
She laughs him off, how are you going to draw water? You don’t have anything to draw water with.
He tells her that all who drink this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks his water will never be thirsty again.
The way Jesus talks about that water makes me think about saltwater. When people drink saltwater, it never quenches their thirst, until they become completely dehydrated.
Psalm 42:1–2 ESV
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
No matter what we seek after, only God can satisfy
The water he gives will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
This initial righteousness will produce and abundance of righteousness.
This will cause the person to be a source of living water.
She asks him for this living water, so she doesn’t have to come here to draw water.
His response to this question is where this conversation changes for her.
Go, call your husband, and come here.

Confronted by Christ

She is confronted by Jesus with her sin in that moment.
Go and call your husband.
I don’t have one.
You’re right, you’ve had 5 husbands, and the one you are with now is not your husband.
Jesus confronts her sinful living.
It can never be said that Jesus didn’t care about sin and righteousness.
That is precisely why he came!
She looks to answer her deep questions.
The Samaritans say here, the Jews say Jerusalem.
Jesus cuts through religiousity.
The first thing she asks when she perceives him to be a prophet is who is right and who is wrong.
An interesting occurrence when people find out I am a pastor. “I go to church sometimes.”
True worshippers will worship in Spirit and in Truth.
Worshipping God without allowing the issues of man to interfere.
The issues between Samaritans and Jews were people’s sinful interactions infiltrating religion.
The woman’s response, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.
“I who speak to you am he.”
Don’t miss how radical this interation is.
Jesus, the Messiah is speaking to a woman. A woman who has a lot of very public sin in her life. A woman who is a Samaritan.
And he reveals himself to be the Messiah.
Jesus reveals who he is.

Transformed by Christ

She leaves this encounter and goes to tell people about what has happened.
“Come and see the man who has told me everything I have ever done.”
Many believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.
Many more believed because of his word.
“It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
They leave changed because they have seen and heard for themselves.
2 Corinthians 5:16–17 ESV
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Encounter
confront
transform
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