Exposing The Need
Notes
Transcript
Exposing The Need
Exposing The Need
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Key verse:
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
The Gospel is exposing the need!
The need is I will never measure up to God’s standards
There is nothing I can do
I am left hopeless and helpless
I must be totally dependent on God’s grace and ask Him to forgive me and accept me because I can not work or make my self better.
In this text Jesus prods the woman's thinking and lets her know that he knows about he past and present situation.
He exposes the need.
Illustration :
Rich young ruler says I’m good I have kept all the law
He did not get it
Example:
Health - we need to take care of our self
You can go along thin-king you are OK
Then a doctor exposes you a have high blood pressure , clogged arteries and a good chance for a life ending hear attack.
The need was exposed by the Law of medicine
You can ignore the need at your own perial
Or you can trust what you doctor says and come under Hid guidenece
The Gospel says His word exposes your sin
His word gives you hope by not trusting on yourself but
Christ
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
I Declaration
I Declaration
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Notice vs 9 - she is shocked that Christ is talking to her.
We begin with a word of indignation (4:9–10): “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” She begins with the question of racial prejudice; later she brings in the issue of religious prejudice (4:20). “The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans,” she added.
Background:
The racial issue went back a very long time. When the northern ten tribes were led into captivity by the Assyrians, the conquerors (following their usual policy of population redistribution) brought foreign settlers into the territory. Before long these newcomers adopted a bastard form of Judaism.
The Jews of Judea rejected the colonists and their clumsy attempts to imitate the Hebrew religion, refusing to have anything to do with them. Later, after the Jews themselves had suffered through the Babylonian captivity and returned to repossess their ancestral homeland, they found the Samaritans still entrenched in the land.
When the Jews began to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem, although the Samaritans wanted to help, their overtures were rejected out of hand. The resulting enmity was fostered on both sides and grew increasingly bitter as years went by (2 Kings 17:24–29; Ezra 4:1–5; Nehemiah 2:10, 19; 4:1–3).
The Samaritan answer to the Jewish temple was to build a rival temple on Mount Gerizim for themselves.
By asking the woman of Samaria for a drink, Jesus swept aside such racial and gender-based prejudices.
There was a declaration made here!
She was important
She mattered
Jesus paid attention to Her
Jesus had something She needed
The Lord did not answer the woman’s question directly.
Rather, he directed her attention to God: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” (4:10).
Here were two marvels. The first was that he, a Jew, had asked her for a drink.
The second was that he claimed to have “living water,” which he was quite willing to give her.
In this statement Jesus told her all she needed to obtain salvation:
what it was (“the water of life”);
who controlled it (he did);
ow to get it (“ask of him” and receive it as “the gift of God”) (compare Romans 6:23).
Exposing the need brings out a desire:
II Desire
II Desire
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
Next comes a word of indecision (4:11–14).
There is a desire that would soon come bursting out!
We note at once the woman’s innate thoughtfulness (4:11–12).
Already this Jew has gone up in her estimation. She now calls him “Sir.” But she was confused.
She was still thinking of the water in the well. It was very deep; her daily trips there over many years had taught her that.
Her thoughts went back to the Hebrew patriarch Jacob who had dug that well through solid rock—no small achievement.
She claims Jacob as “our father Jacob,” a spurious claim since Jacob was not the father of the alien Samaritans.
But the Lord did not quibble about that. He was soon to introduce her to his Father, one who could indeed become her Father.
The Lord simply held before her again the attractive offer of never thirsting, appealing to the woman’s inner thirstiness (4:13–14).
“If you drink of this water, you will thirst again. If you drink of the water I give, you will never thirst again.
On the contrary, you will receive an inner ‘well of water springing up into everlasting life’ ” (4:14).
She was thinking in literal terms; he was talking to her in figures of speech.
The physical was used as an illustration of the spiritual. The woman had not yet caught on. She was still thinking of some magical well of water, as her next words show.
Now comes a word of intimation (4:15). The woman asks for this mysterious water that would relieve her of the necessity of making daily trips to the well.
She could not follow the symbolism but she could intimate her own deep need; she could ask for the water of life this stranger was talking about. And she did.
Now she was asking him for a drink, just as he had previously asked her. It was a great step forward in her spiritual odyssey.
But the Lord does not give the gift of eternal life without first dealing with the question of sin.
Jesus was bring out the desire to know God
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Illustration- preaching of God word pricks the heart
III. Disclosure
III. Disclosure
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
As soon as the woman revealed her receptiveness to the gift of living water, the Lord put a finger on what was causing her quenchless thirst: sin.
Illustration - disclosure of your past!
In a divorce case a very prominent businessman tries to keep from the public his privite life:
But then at the cour it all came out :
All was there to read
Jesus exposed her past to bring her to herself and confession.
You can hide
You cant run
God is omni present:
7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; Even the night shall be light about me. 12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; But the night shineth as the day: The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
There is an abrupt change in the conversation here. She had just asked for the water, and the Lord Jesus told her to go and call her husband.
Why? Before this woman could be saved, she must acknowledge herself a sinner.
She must come to Christ in true repentance, confessing her guilt and shame.
The Lord Jesus knew all about the sinful life she had lived, and He was going to lead her, step by step, to see it for herself.
Only those who know themselves to be lost can be saved. All men are lost, but not all are willing to admit it.
4:17 At first the woman tried to withhold the truth without telling a lie.
She said, “I have no husband.” Perhaps in a strictly legal sense, her statement was true. But it was designed to hide the hideous fact that she was then living in sin with a man who was not her husband:
The Lord Jesus, as God, knew all about this. And so He said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband.’ ” Although she might be able to fool her fellow men, she was not able to fool this Man. He knew all about her.
4:18 The Lord never used His complete knowledge of all things to needlessly expose or shame a person.
But He did use it, as here, in order to deliver a person from the bondage of sin.
How startled she must have been when He recited her past history! She had had five husbands, and the man with whom she was now living was not her husband.
4:19 When her life was thus laid open before her, the woman realized that the One speaking to her was not an ordinary person. However, she did not yet realize that He was God. The highest estimation she could form of Him was that He was a prophet, that is, a spokesman for God.
Exposing the Need:
I. Declaration
II. Desire
III. Disclosure