Hope Wins - 4

Hope Wins - 4

Introduction

carry a very interesting story in the history of ancient Israel. The Northern Kingdom’s capital city of Samaria is under siege by the nation of Aram. That siege, which cut off all support and supplies, lasted so long that it produced a devastating famine.

- 24 Some time later, however, King Ben-hadad of Aram mustered his entire army and besieged Samaria. 25 As a result, there was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver. 26 One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, “Please help me, my lord the king!” 27 He answered, “If the Lord doesn’t help you, what can I do? I have neither food from the threshing floor nor wine from the press to give you.” 28 But then the king asked, “What is the matter?” She replied, “This woman said to me: ‘Come on, let’s eat your son today, then we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said to her, ‘Kill your son so we can eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.”

That’s about as bad as it gets. It finally gets so bad as people are waiting to die, that an unlikely group decides to do something about it. Four lepers get tired of waiting and decide to surrender themselves to Aram. The Arameans may kill them, but, they argue, they’re going to die anyway. The risk is worth it. Perhaps they’ll accept our surrender and give us food.

What they don’t know is that the siege has already ended. God had already defeated the enemy on Israel’s behalf. But no one had heard the good news yet. God had thrown the Arameans into a panic, thinking they were being attacked by a huge army, and had fled so quickly, they left behind their tents, supplies, and food. Only when the lepers get there do they see what’s happened.

- 8 When the men with leprosy arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it.

It’s party city for them! They have all the food, wine, wealth they want. More than they could ever need. They even start hiding it. That is when we realize this is the most selfish, unloving thing they could do. The entire city of Samaria behind them is in desperate need. They are dying. And these four lepers are living the good life, choosing to ignore the suffering around them. Finally it dawns on them that they need to do something.

- 9 Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.” 10 So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. “We went out to the Aramean camp,” they said, “and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there wasn’t a single person around!” 11 Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.

“This is not right…” Duh! People around you are dying and you have what they need to live. You have to go share it with them. You have to go share it with them. And that’s what they do. They announce the good news throughout the city. The army is gone! The enemy has been defeated! The whole city rushes out to the camp and eat their fill. There is celebration, joy, hope. All because four lepers told them the good news.

What if they hadn’t told anyone? What if they decided to keep the good news to themselves? Here is the harsh reality: if these lepers stay there and not tell anyone, the city dies. They waste away, starving to death, without hope. All because no one told them that God has already saved them. All because no one told them God has already defeated the enemy.

Man, this sounds familiar. “This is the day of good news and we aren’t sharing it with anyone!” I know too many churches who could etch that over their doorways. I know too many Christians who have adopted this as their life verse. As Christians, we’ve discovered the empty camp. We know where to have our hunger satisfied and our thirst quenched. We know the enemy has been defeated and that God has saved us. How could we keep that to ourselves?

This is the source of our hope. We have victory. God has done something great for us in Jesus. What we come to understand is that once we’ve experienced this, it’s not right to keep that to ourselves. We have to tell others. We have to share that good news.

TS - Today we conclude our Hope Wins series. We’ve been looking at what hope looks like and where hope comes from. Last week we saw that if hope really does define us as a people, and drive us as the church, it’s going to change things. We looked at where we are headed as a church in the days to come. If hope is the power that defines us and drives us, let’s let it do that. So we are going to organize our church around it. Be Hope. Give Hope. Last week we talked about Be Hope, looking at what a life defined by hope looks like. And we saw the three pillars that hold that up, that accomplish that—worship faithfully, grow spiritually, connect relationally. If you do those things, your life will begin to be defined by hope. Today, we are going to look at Give Hope. Hope is meant to be shared. If you live hope, you will naturally give hope.

As we wrap this series up and set our gaze on the future of this church as we Give Hope, we are going to look at an encounter Jesus has with a woman in . Interestingly enough, this encounter takes place in Samaria. Hundreds of years after the capital was under siege, the circumstances of the people are not all that different. There is still a famine—only this one is a different kind of famine. Not physical, but spiritual. And that famine remains until someone shows up to give hope to the hopeless.

- Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than  (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). 3 So he left Judea and returned to Galilee. 4 He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. 9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?” 10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

This story finds Jesus in Samaria, an odd place for him to be. Jews in his day, particularly devout ones, would avoid Samaria at all costs. They would travel completely around it, doubling the length of their journey. Why? So they didn’t have to interact with Samaritans. Ten chapters after we encounter the lepers in , the Norther Kingdom is destroyed by the Assyrian Empire. As the Assyrians settle into the land, the Israelites who had survived the invasion intermarried with them. They start worshipping their gods. So now they are racially and religiously compromised. To this day if an orthodox Jew marries a Gentile, the family will hold a funeral service for them, because for all intents and purposes, according to Judaism, that person is dead. So Jews don’t see the Samaritans as Jews in any sense of the word.

And yet, here Jesus sits. Palestine is 120 miles long and is essentially divided into three regions—Judea in the South, Galilee in the North, and Samaria in between. Jesus has been in Judea and is traveling to Galilee. He has three routes to choose from, two of which take him around Samaria. He chooses the one that goes right through it. He sits down by Jacob’s well (still there) as this woman approaches. This is trouble for a few reasons culturally…one, she’s a woman. Men didn’t even speak to their wives outside the home, let alone other women. Two, she’s the wrong kind of woman. Samaritan, strike two.

Strike three is that she is an outcast from her own society. We see this in two ways—she’s drawing water at noon, the hottest part of the day. You only did that if you were avoiding all the other people in your village, as they all did it early in the morning. On top of that, she is drawing water at a well that is 1/2 mile outside of town, even though a water source was closer to her in town. No one would go with her. No one is there to help her, say, if a strange man should be sitting at the well. She is alone and without hope.

Yet Jesus breaks all the rules and talks to her. A soul is at stake. Hopelessness cannot be ignored. His request for a drink shocks her, and we understand why. As their conversation continues, we find they are both thirsty, just for different things. Jesus is physically thirsty, she spiritually. Jesus identifies himself as the source of living water that can quench any thirst. She is skeptical and should be. She has taken his statements literally and notices he is without bucket and rope, and this well is already pretty good. That’s when the conversation dramatically changes.

- 13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” 15 “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.” 16 “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her. 17 “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— 18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”

When she says she is interested in this water, Jesus instead strikes the core of her thirst. Where is your husband? She doesn’t have one…this is the shortest and most abrupt statement she makes in their entire exchange. She’s convicted. Because she’s had 5 husbands and since they haven’t worked out, she didn’t even bother with the 6th. We don’t know the reasons for the numerous husbands, but we do know that relationship after relationship has left her empty and thirsting for something better.

She’s impressed by his knowledge and the continue to banter about worship and other things. The conversation culminates in v. 25:

- 25 The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”

Typically Jesus tends to hide his true identity, but here is quick to identify himself as the Messiah. He is the one she’s been waiting for. He is the one the world has bene waiting for. She has grown hopeless, but he is the one who offers hope. Hope has arrived.

So what do you do in this moment? What do you do when you meet hope face to face? What do you do when you drink the living water and experience your lifelong thirst being satisfied? You go and tell the other thirsty people!

- 28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him.

She goes to those who have previously rejected her. She tells them about Jesus…Hope is here! And they stream out to see him. Meanwhile, the disciples who have been out to get lunch, return. Here is part of what he says to them:

- 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.

What is going on in the background as Jesus says this to them? The people are streaming out of the village to come and see him. Open up your eyes…the harvest is everywhere. The hopeless are everywhere. People want hope. People need hope. They are drawn to it. When you plant hope, there is always a harvest. When someone finally experiences the reality of hope in their own lives, they quickly realize…hope is never just for us. Hope is for those around us too.

- 39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” 40 When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

These people have come to faith in Jesus because of one sentence. This Samaritan woman, whose name we don’t even know, utters one sentence to them and they find hope. She realized hope was not just for her. And these new believers realized the same. Notice their last sentence…He is the savior of the world. Not of Sychar. Not of Samaria. He is the Savior for everyone. Hope is for everyone.

TS - So, Christian…you’ve met Jesus. Because of his great work, you now have a life that is defined by hope. You’ve found the enemy camp and discovered that God has already defeated the enemy. You’ve drank the living water. Now what? Do you selfishly hoard all that for yourself? Or do you come to realize what all these people did? The Gospel is for everyone. Hope is for everyone. As the lepers said…this is not right! to keep this to ourselves. This is the day of Good News, we must share it. So how do we get that done. What steps can we take to Give Hope? Here are the final three pillars to build the church upon:

SERVE REGULARLY

When we serve others, it gives hope. We are helping people to see the difference God can make in someone’s life. By our service, we are helping them know Him better. As a church, we want to equip you to serve, to create opportunities for you to share your faith by simply serving. There are a myriad of opportunities to do that in our community, and there are countless ways inside the church as well.

, - 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ…As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

As we all serve, as each part does its work, the body grows. Two reasons that happens…you mature in your faith. Serving brings growth by maturity. But also, the church grows as we serve. It gets bigger. The more we shows are lives defined by hope, the more hope we give, the more people realize they are thirsty.

Every act of service is ultimately an act of evangelism because it is giving hope to those without hope.

—holding babies so parents can worship without distraction

—teaching/helping kids learn about who Jesus is

—hanging out with students for them to see what Jesus can do in their lives

—greeting with a smile to make a guest more comfortable

—making coffee so people can relax to worship

—singing/instrument to help people encounter God

—teaching class/LifeGroup to help people encounter God in the Bible

If you want to give hope, serving is one of the best ways to do that.

2. LIVE GENEROUSLY

Back to those lepers…God had graciously provided that victory, that food, wine, and wealth. They realized it was not right to hoard all that to themselves. That would’ve been greedy. Instead they shared what they had been given. and 4 both share that the early church took this to heart. They practiced radical generosity. And it made an impact. It directly influenced their ability to reach people with the Gospel. People respond to generosity.

By being generous with time, with your money, with your possessions, you are actively giving hope. Financial generosity empowers this church to:

—minister in our community

—provide counseling and care to people in need

—partner with the city to put on great events to serve

—partner with schools for ministries that meet needs

—150 students backpacks full of food

—annual dinner at MMS

—Easter Egg Hunt Extravaganza on March 24. We are providing volunteers, purchasing thousands of eggs, filling 10,000 eggs…all done by your generosity.

—enable missionaries all around the world to share the Gospel in places many of us will never go.

- 11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.

Generosity ends with joyful gratitude to God, and people praising him. We call that Giving Hope.

3. SHARE COURAGEOUSLY

This is the day of Good News! Why wouldn’t we share that? Why don’t we share our faith more? It’s hard to do. We can admit together that this is difficult. What if they ask me a question I don’t know the answer to? Tell them you don’t know but you’ll find out. What if they bring up my past? They knew me when. Good. Now they should see the dramatic difference.

Not everyone is a gifted evangelist. The NT tells us that there are some who are specifically gifted by God to do that. They naturally share their faith. They love hanging out with lost people. They read books about and study apologetics. They have a winsome and engaging testimony they passionately share. If that’s you…live in the calling God has placed on you. If that isn’t God’s call and gifting for you, that’s ok. You don’t have to be a great evangelist. Be a great inviter. The average Christian invites another person to church once every 28 years. Let’s kill that statistic. Easter is around the corner…one of the best two opportunities of the year.

Do you know what makes hope attractive? A community of people who have had their lives transformed by hope. A group of Christians who are defined by hope. Be Hope. Give Hope. Hope is the most powerful force in the world. It defines us as Christians. It drives the church. So we are going to let it do that.

pic - Be Hope. Give Hope. 6 pillars

Maybe today you’ve realized that you need this hope. describes people who have not placed their faith in Jesus as “without God and without hope in the world.”

Believe/Repent/Confess/Baptize

SONG - Hope Has A Name