Broken Water Jars.

John 4:27–42 ESV

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. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” 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.”

Big Idea: What do you do when you encounter Jesus?

Leave Your Life and Follow Him.

The conversation with the woman was essentially over when the disciples show up.

They were incredibly confused as to why Jesus would even be talking to a Samaritan woman.

Rabbis (teachers) didn’t even talk to Jewish women.

“Prolong not conversation with a woman. That is to say, even with one’s own wife; how much more with a neighbors wife. Hence the wise men say, ‘He who prolongs conversation with a woman brings evil upon himself, ceases from the words of the law, and at the last inherits Gehanna.” (Bruce on Yose ben Yohanan 112)

This woman then has a choice to make. She’s encountered God, and so what is she going to do?

She leaves her water jar behind and follows jesus.

Leave everything behind and follow God.

The woman, in leaving her jar behind, was making a statement.

She was leaving her old way of life behind. She was going to follow Jesus instead of going back to the way she was, back to that guy she left at the house.

We need to leave everything at the feet of Jesus and follow Him.

What does this mean though?

Do you have to stop doing everything and anything; and go live in a convent and only sing songs to Jesus? Not necessarily!

When we say, ‘Give up everything and follow Jesus,’ we mean put your very life, existence itself, on God; but then we pick back up the pieces of our lives, but only if it fits in our new life.

It’s like your life a puzzle with too many pieces.

When God enters your life, when the Holy Spirit indwells in you, you find out there’s too many pieces in your puzzle, so God tells you to put some down or change where they go.

Maybe sports, video games, friends, or school was the biggest piece of your puzzle, but God tells you to change it’s value

So, you have to shrink those things and where they go on the puzzle. They were the most important, now their just an add on.

Maybe Jesus tells you that your pride doesn’t fit in your puzzle any more.

And so, you have to remove that from the puzzle.

And so, we bring our whole busted up puzzle to God, and ask Him to give us the right pieces and put them where they are supposed to go.

When we follow God, everything about us must change.

Our values, the words we say, the thoughts we think; everything changes when we give up our way of living and turn to God.

Invite Others

When this woman leaves, we can wonder, ‘What is she going to do?’

She immediately goes to the people of her town and tells them about Jesus.

Why is that crazy?

She didn’t even know Jesus that well

She is a woman, talking to men.

She’s the outcast of the town!

but, she goes anyway, because she can’t not share the story of Jesus.

If your life has been changed by Jesus, you should be telling others about Jesus.

You don’t need to have all the answers, or have the best strategies, you just need to be willing to talk to people about God!

The woman didn’t have some immense grasp of theology or even much of a relationship with Jesus; but do you know what she did have? Her story.

Vs. 29: Come and see the Man who changed me.

All you need to tell someone about Jesus is how Jesus changed you.

More knowledge is good, and having Scripture memorized or a book to help is great, but God is the One who saves, not you, so let Him do the work of saving people!

The woman was willing to face the people who looked down on her for the sake of the Gospel, and we should do the same.

Telling people about God can be scary, but it’s so worth it!

What’s the worst that could happen? vs. What’s the best that could happen?

Someone says no or maybe makes fun of you

Someone gives their lives to Jesus and their lives are completely changed.

If your life was changed by God, it’s your responsibility to tell others.

Do the Work of God.

With such an awesome story, you might expect the woman to then become a disciple and follow Jesus around like the 12 did, but she doesn’t do that.

She’s got work to do in her area.

It reminds me of a different story in Mark 5, the story of the demoniac.

Explain story.

He wanted to follow Jesus around, but Jesus says no!

Why did Jesus do that? Because he had work to do!

Mark 5:19 “And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.””

Christians must do the work that God sets before them.

For the disciples, it was to leave behind their lives and follow Jesus.

For the woman, it was to stay in Samaria and preach.

Jesus tells the disciples that there is work to be done.

He uses farming terms [reap, harvest, gather] to point to how people can be saved if we’re willing to put in the work.

There’s so many people that need Jesus, and you can be a part of seeing people come to God, but you need to be willing to live your life on God’s terms.

Pray to understand what God would have for you.

Not everyone is meant to preach, not everyone is meant to live in a foreign country and be a missionary, but we’re all meant to work for God’s glory in the ways that He’s gifted us.

So, actively pray and work to understand how God wants to use you.

Maybe it’s talking to a friend about Jesus

Maybe it’s inviting a friend to youth group

Maybe it’s talking to the person who you don’t know.

There’s always some way that God can use you.

In Acts 8, there’s a story of how this guy Philip goes to a town and preaches the Gospel in people come to the faith in droves.

The thing is, it’s in Samaria, and he preaches in the capital city of Samaria.

I don’t know, because I wasn’t there, but I just want so badly to believe that the reason that so many people were coming to faith in Jesus is because the woman had done the work of God and preached, and the people that she preached to then did the work of God and preached, so that part of the reason that they were so quick to believe in Jesus was because they had already heard about this Jesus who changed a broken woman by telling her everything about herself.

Gospel presentation.

Questions.

What’s the best movie you’ve watched this year?

What are the “puzzle pieces” in your life that God might be telling you to give up?

Who can you invite to youth group this week?

Read vs. 38. How can you do the work of God this week?