It's Deeper Than The Well
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!
Scripture Reference: John 4:23
Context
Context
We have now reached Chapter 4 of John.
Our attention now turns from a group of young men to a young woman, but this is not the only difference that we see.
The young men we have been discussing were zealous, maybe even over-zealous, concerning their faith. Over-zealousness can lead us to doing wrong things for the right reasons. They were upset because John was losing followers, failing to realize that Jesus was the One whom they all should be following anyway.
The young lady we will see today is not even a Jew, at least not a full-blooded one. She believes in God, but her religious life is more in line with the religious leaders of Jerusalem than with the young men following John.
There is much she does not understand, but Jesus has come to help her figure it out.
Namely, we get a first-hand lesson taught to us from Jesus Himself. With this lesson, there are many things to understand.
We will see how Jesus handles evangelism to a religious skeptic.
We will see the very essence of salvation.
We will see the true nature of worship according to God.
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
Content
Content
The Setting
The Setting
Throughout the last couple of weeks, we have been looking at John the Baptist and his disciples talking about how Jesus is gaining traction.
His ministry is growing. More and more people are beginning to follow Him, and news is getting out.
1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John
2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),
3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
So Jesus decides to leave where He is and go towards Galilee.
Maybe His leaving is to gain some distance between Him and John. Maybe it is to gain some distance between Him and the religious leaders. We don’t really know for sure, but He decides to leave Judea regardless.
Now Judea is in the Southern territory. Galilee is in the Northern territory. Right in between the two is the land of Samaria.
4 But He needed to go through Samaria.
5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
So they reach Samaria. It just so happens that where they are travelling brings them right to Jacob’s well.
The text tells us that Jesus was weary from His journey. This is one of those texts within Scripture that speak to the humanity of Christ.
He is fully God, but yet fully man. He got tired and needed water. Other times we see where He cries. We have already seen where He got angry at the temple and flipped over tables. We also see in the Gospels where He gets tired and takes a nap in a boat.
He is fully man, but I also can’t help but to imagine that there is more to this than just being tired. As we will see in a moment, the way these next events happen to work out, seem to perfect to just be coincidental.
The Struggle
The Struggle
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
You can see what I mean now about it not being coincidental. It just so happens that when the disciples go to buy food in town that a woman shows up at the well to draw water.
Talking about impeccable timing.....
I do not find it coincidental that Jesus and this woman are here alone. Many times, a one-on-one scenario is where you can do your deepest work.
This isn’t just any woman though. This is a Samaritan woman.
The origin of the Samaritans trace back to the time of Nehemiah. After the capture of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians, several of the Jewish people intermarried with the Assyrians, creating a mixed race of Jewish/Assyrian bloodlines.
Because of their new families, once they were officially released from captivity, many of them decided not to go back to Jerusalem. They stayed in Samaria with their new families, new homes, and new culture.
Full blooded Jews refused to acknowledge them as true Jews because of these circumstances. Therefore a natural barrier existed from that point forward.
The Samaritans viewed themselves as true Jews. They had their own copy of the Torah (The books of Moses; the first five books of the Bible), and the refused to recognize any other writings as that of God. They held only to what the Torah itself said. They also felt since God destroyed Jerusalem, that it no longer was the true place of worship. They did believe in Yahweh, but they worshipped Him on Mount Gerizim, which was in Samaria.
All of these differences of belief and heritage led to an intense bitterness between the Jews and the Samaritans. They did not speak to one another if it could be helped. They did not support one another. They each viewed the others as sacrilegious.
Think about that. Two groups of people who come from the same roots, who believe in and worship the same God, refuse to have fellowship with one another based on some differences in their beliefs. Does that sound familiar to you?
It sounds just like where we are today within the church. So many people distance themselves from others, simply because of differences in their beliefs. If we can agree on Jesus, then I can agree to disagree on just about anything else.
Jesus did not buy into this hatred and separatist attitude. When this woman showed up, He asks if she would give Him a drink.
She was taken back by this.
9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
She doesn’t understand why Jesus would be asking her for a drink, regardless of the circumstances. Not only was their hostility amongst their people, but Jewish custom actually said that if you drank from the same cup as a Samaritan, it would defile you. In other words, it would make you unclean. This would mean you were not able to worship God, or enter the synagogue.
Jesus quickly sets the stage for this young woman...
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
Jesus immediately tears down these cultural barriers. He do so by alluding to the salvation of God.
This woman has been raised to believe that Samaritans and Jews cannot have fellowship with one another. She has bought into the separation that man has caused amongst themselves.
Jesus says, “We were meant to be in communion with one another. If you knew the truth (that of salvation & who I AM) then we would be having a very different conversation.
The salvation of God is not biased. It is not for one group only. It is for all people who will believe. You believe in Yahweh. I believe in Yaweh. So why should their exist this barrier between us?
“If you knew who I was, then you would have asked me for a drink, and I would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
The woman is struggling to understand exactly what Jesus is getting at.
“Are you saying that if I read this situation correctly, that I would have asked you for a drink upon arrival, instead of you asking me? You have no bucket, and the well is deep. How could you have given me water?”
Her statement was more profound than she realized. Jesus was not talking about physical water, which He makes clear here in a second. He is also not talking about this physical well.
The water He speaks of is salvation. The well He speaks of is His very essence. Jesus has both a different well than that she could see, and that which He needed to draw from it.
The Word of God is the bucket used to draw from this well. The Word of God is the catalyst God has given us to lead us unto salvation.
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Jesus is the Word of God....in the flesh. We have established that in previous messages. Jesus is also God in the flesh. Everything needed to provide this woman salvation was perfectly within His grasp.
She further states her case by saying:
12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
She is a Samaritan; He is a Jew. He seems to be undisturbed by this fact, so she seeks to find some common ground, so that she might understand His position. Regardless of how you feel or perceive things to be now, one thing is for sure: The Samaritans and the Jews both trace their heritage back to Jacob, the father of the Jewish people. His 12 sons became the 12 leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel.
“Are you saying that you are greater than him? Even he had to draw water from its depth to water himself, his sons, and his flocks.”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
This water is for the physical body. It is necessary for the physical body, but after you drink it, you will become thirsty again. The water I speak of is not for the body, but for the soul. Your soul longs for something better, something more. This water I speak of will quench that thirst, and you will never thirst again. It will become a fountain of water inside you, springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
Jesus has laid this out for her so clearly, but she is still struggling to see what He means. She can’t get passed this physical well with physical water. She fails to see her need for this water Jesus speaks of.
So now, He shifts the conversation to something that she will understand.
The Sin
The Sin
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
Jesus now shifts the conversation in a direction that will help her to see her need for this living water.
He tells her to get her husband and return with him. She responds that she doesn’t have one.
Jesus agrees with her that she does not have a husband, but then proceeds to unveil His knowledge of her past. He reveals His knowledge that she has indeed had five previous husbands, and that she is currently living with a man that is not her husband.
Jesus, if He is a normal person, should not know these things, but He does.
Notice that Jesus condemns this act. It was acceptable in their culture to do so, and it is acceptable to many within our culture to do so, but it is not acceptable to God. Sharing that type of close relationship with someone is confined to marriage and marriage alone according to God.
Also notice that she does not deny what He has said. In doing so, she admits her fault. She could have responded with excuses or a load of questions trying to justify her choices, but she doesn’t. She knows it is wrong.
This admittance of guilt also brings her to the point of understanding her need for this living water that Jesus spoke of earlier. It is only when we admit our sinfulness, that our eyes are opened to the need of salvation.
Now seeing this truth for herself, the conversation yet again takes another turn.
The Savior
The Savior
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
She now sees that He is not a normal man. She has not come to realize the fullness of who He is just yet, but she knows that there is more to Him than meets the eye. He must be a prophet. How else could He know these things about me?
Furthermore, “My life is a wreck. I have been married five times and every one of those marriages failed. I am now in an illegitimate relationship with another man who is not my husband. I need to beg God for forgiveness. I need His help and guidance.”
But wait a minute. There’s a problem. We Samaritans believe that this mountain is the true place of worship. You Jews say that the temple in Jerusalem is the true place of worship. Where am I supposed to take my sin offering? How do I know where I should go to make things right with God?
Now we are getting somewhere. She has admitted her guilt. She has admitted her need to make things right with God. She has torn down the wall of separation between her as a Samaritan and the Jews. She wants to do the right thing.
22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
The Jews have it right, in terms of current place of worship. You separated yourselves from my people years ago when you decided to stay in Assyria and not return to the homeland. You missed out on so much of what God did after that with His people. You are also only operating on a small portion of the Word of God. There is so much more to see than just those five books. You need the other 34 to give you the full picture.
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Jesus also clarifies God’s intended form of worship. He makes it clear that the time has come to do away with the sacrifices and offerings. In turn, this makes the altar at Mount Gerizim and Jerusalem obsolete. This is not the form of worship that God requires, or desires. He desires a more pure form of worship.
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The worship of God had much less to do with where you do it, and more to do with how you do it. True worship must be done in spirit and truth.
True worship comes from the heart. It is not so much about going to the temple (coming to church) and offering up sacrifices (paying tithes). It is more about the condition of the heart. You can go to the temple and offer sacrifices while your heart is not it. You can come to church and pay tithes while your heart is not in it.
Furthermore, the worship of God is not limited to a place. It is limited only by your heart. The Holy spirit lives within each of us. He goes where we go. As long as our spirit is in tune with the Holy Spirit, we are in a position to offer up worship to God.
The other facet to true worship is truth. It is bound by the Scriptures. It is driven by what pleases God, not by what pleases man. Notice that the text says, “For God is seeking such to worship Him.”
We spend so much time trying to please men and so little time trying to please God. True worship is not determined by what we feel is adequate, but rather by what God says is adequate.
When we align our worship with His Word, under the aid of the Holy Spirit of God, then, and only then, can we offer up true worship to God.
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
After hearing these amazing truths from this presumed prophet by the well, she then proclaims, “I know that Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
In other words, “I cannot dispute what You have said. It is not in alignment with I have been taught, but it is in alignment with Scripture.”
She is at a crossroads. She feels in her heart that what Jesus has said is true, but in order to agree with Him, she must also agree that her, and therefore all of her people, have been missing the truth for generations. What is she going to do? How can she reconcile this dilemma within her heart?
Ahhh, I know. “The Messiah should be coming. When he does, He will settle all of these things, and then there will be no doubt to whom is right. That’s it, I will wait for the Messiah.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
I AM He. I AM the Messiah. These things are true.
Because of the sin in your life, you need to be saved.
Because I am the Son of God, I can offer that salvation unto you.
Regardless of the culture says, I love you. The Jews should love you too. You were all meant to be in communion and fellowship with one another, and I am here to tear down that wall of separation that exists between you.
You cannot offer up worthy worship to the Father without first accepting the Son.
And then your worship is to be offered in spirit and truth. That is what God desires. That is what pleases Him.
Commitment
Commitment