Joy series 3 Woman at the Well

Introduction

What borders have you set up when speaking to others?

Jesus spoke to a high class religious figure like Nicodemus, the man we talked about in the lesson last week, and today we will see that he not only speaks to those high class type of people, but also to the people who maybe society rejects.

We will read about his conversation today with a woman who fell into that class.

But as we read today, ask yourself that exact question.

What borders have you set up when speaking to others?

We have a good chunk of verses to read today, so please try your best focus and understand what Christ is trying to show us through this passage.

If you have your copies of God’s word, turn with me to:

Body

John 4:1–42 CSB

1 When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 3 he left Judea and went again to Galilee. 4 He had to travel through Samaria; 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. 9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.” 11 “Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.” 13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.” 15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.” 16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” 17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour 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 an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.” 27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They left the town and made their way to him. 31 In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” 33 The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them. 35 “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.” 39 Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of what he said. 42 And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

That was a lot to read and unpack, Just briefly let me break it down.

For a Jewish person, such as Christ to take the time to break the cultural boundaries and to talk to a Samaritan woman, someone who his people would have looked at as unclean and lesser, sets the example for us that as his followers there are no boundaries we are to set up when it comes to sharing the gospel.

When I was in school and even still today, sometimes on the street or maybe in the hallways I would see people and maybe even if just for a second I would think they are too bad to hear this message.

on the other hand sometimes we look at certain people through this lense of perfection and wealth and think they have it all figured out when they may be the most broken people in the world.

What are those boundaries you are setting up?

Maybe it’s a kid at school that you don’t find as easy to talk to or cool and because of your feelings toward them you have completely shut off that avenue to witness.

Christ talked with sinners throughout the world. High class and low class.

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This verse tells us to go throughout the world, that means to everyone and share the Joy of the gospel with them.

Jesus provided this woman with so much Joy, simply by being himself, breaking down the cultural barriers that existed, and sharing the good news of his salvation with her.

We too can do that every single day, but we have to set those social barriers to the side and just allow God to use us as a vessel for his glory.

God changed my life and filled me with Joy and I have seen him feel too many people with Joy for us to let any social or cultural differences hold us back from sharing that Joy with everyone we come across.