The Encounter.

Good Morning, this morning we are going to continue on in our series of Jesus… The People He Loves. When Pat, proposed this series I started to think about who I could would I choose out of scripture as the person in whom Jesus loves, and I came up with a few different options. Then I really started to think of how the narrative of that story can apply to us and there was one person and one narrative in scripture that really kept sticking out to me and that was the story of the Woman at the Well. In this story, we find that Jesus Shatters the societal norms of that time and ultimately all times, and he leaves us with a golden nugget if you would, because in this encounter Jesus calls us to confess our guilt and shame, to receive eternal, abundant life, and to share that life with others, inviting them, too, to know the Savior. So although, we will touch on that ultimately originially I had planned on speaking to the racial and social divide that we see in culture around us and has invaded for a large part into the Church culture at large. Yet, there was another point that I saw, that may be overlooked and we will touch on as well which is that of Worship. Now, you all know that I love worship, it has been a major part of my entire ministry life and experience and often what I have found is it is very misunderstood within the confines of the Church. You see what you will find is worship is more then a building, it is more than a sermon or service, and it definitely more than a song that we sing. Rather, it is about an encounter, and the lifestyle that is born from that encounter. So without further ado if you would turn in your Bibles to John 4 I know this will be a longer reading but it is important that we utilize and understand the entire story. So we will be starting in vs 5 and reading through vs 42. John 4:5-42

John 4:5–42 ESV

So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” 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.”

Let’s pray

What if God set up a video presentation right here in the sanctuary and started to show all of your greatest sins on the screen, for everyone to see? Would you be embarrassed? Full of guilt and shame? Or what if God set up that video presentation and started playing it and all that came out was the light of Jesus in your life? Every sin had long since been forgiven and thrown into the deepest parts of the ocean, to be remembered no more? Would you feel grateful maybe appreciative of what Jesus had done for you? Maybe even a little proud and ecstatic that he took notice of you individually and did such a great thing for you? I think everyone would agree there would be a sigh of relief with such and undeserving act of grace and love! As I was preparing and forming these questions, I thought of what if.... to be honest even as a Pastor who is open and honest about my life and invites people to see the inner most part of who I am, there are things that I would not necessarily want shown on the big screen of a television, like you I am human, like you I have made dumb decisions and fallen short of the glory of God at times in my life and the thought of that being plastered out there especially knowing here that we livestream and it will be seen by possibly the entire world there would be fear, there would be anxiety, and yet if when that tape started rolling all we saw was Christ, all we saw was the good right that is produced through a life that is surrendered to His Lordship I would be relieved.

(and) Today we will see a story where this sort of took place, we will see a story of a person whose life was in shambles. She had pretty much given up on any significant relationship, with a pattern of failures laying behind her. What’s more, she lived in a small town, where everyone knew everyone’s business, can anyone relate to that?. So her sins were public knowledge. She was basically shunned by society, living on the outskirts, barely surviving. And the God of the universe took a personal interest in her. What’s more, he used her word as a catalyst for change for the entire community. In the story we read just a minute ago I want you to consider the following three points. If we’re truthful, we can all relate to each, in some form or fashion. First, 1. Give all your guilt and shame to God (vv.16-19) This woman had three strikes against her; 1. She was a woman. Women were considered second class citizens in the First Century, much as they still are today in many way in many parts of the world. rabbis in Jesus’ time taught that women could not learn the Law, and that a long conversation with a woman would lead a man astray. Reality is that Power-hungry men in every generation forget the fact that God made male AND female in his image, and that women carry the image of God just as men do. 2. Not only was she a woman but a Samaritan woman at that. It is important to understand that the Samaritans were half-Jews who had bred with non-Jews in the past. They believed in the same God but only recognized the first five book of the Bible. Israel hated them more than unbelievers! Imagine your most hated stereotype, whether it be somebody of a different skin color, someone from the LGBTQ+ Community, or worst of all your political rivals. That’s who the Samaritans were to the Jews. They were to be ignored at all costs. And finally (3) she had a questionable reputation. We surmise this early on because she was at the well in the heat of the day, instead of coming early in the morning with the other women. She had been shunned, ostracized by her own community, all because of this reputation. So when looking at this one cannot help but think that with all of these strikes against her she should really have been the least likely candidate for a private chat withe Savior of the world. At least that would be our humanistic logic, but not God’s logic. Throughout scripture God consistently roots for the underdog. What you find here is that Jesus actually reveals the very heart of God by spending private one-on-one time with a woman caught up in sexual sin, failed relationships, questionable reputation, undoubted loneliness, and lots of resulting guilt and shame. he calls her on her sin, but not in a harsh, condemning way, rather, with care.And this woman does what any of us might do when called out of our sin: she changes the subject, try’s to dodge the issues. She shifts the conversation to where the best place of worship should be. You the Samaritans hold one one view, the Jews another, in fact this was an age old debate between the two people group. What she really needs to do is confess her guilt and shame to the One who can replace it with his love and forgiveness. She needs to confess that she has put other first, where God alone should be in her life. But that’s uncomfortable, that would mean addressing the issue, how often are we the same. How often do we avoid the pressing issue in our life and rather try to shift the conversation, shift the narrative in a more comfortable direction, but without confession, there is no salvation. So what does Jesus do, does he get caught up in this debate, does he answer the way she wants. No, rather he gently guides the conversation from who SHE is to who HE is. So let’s look at this is more, in verse 25 she starts to talk about the return of the Messiah, and in verse 26, Jesus states, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”Except that is not really how that is worded. Our English translators added the word “he” to the end of the sentence to make more sense. What Jesus Literally says is, “I, the one speaking to you—I AM.” Now to many this may seem miniscule and in reality it does not change the meaning or integrity of the story or translation, but what Jesus was doing was referring to himself as the great “I AM” the title of God Moses had encountered at the burning bush. This woman would have understood that immediately, since the story was also in her Bible, too. The Gospel of John captures some 23 times Jesus using this title for himself, seven of those times with major teaching points accompanied by dramatic sign miracles. The message is clear: Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the very son of God, deity in human form, the author and finisher of our salvation. And once we get that we are called to point two which is to trust in Jesus as our Savior (vv. 28-29)

There is no better response once you understand this, that Jesus is in fact God in human flesh, that he came to forgive our sin and make us one with God again, giving us life like vibrant water forever welling up out of our soul. The only appropriate response is to trust him as our Savior, because we cannot save ourselves from this battle with temptation and sin. You see the Holy Spirit working on this woman, to bring her to this trusting relationship with the Messiah in her words in vs. 28-29: Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told her people. “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

She is so startled and so much in rush that she leaves her water jar behind. She rushes to the village, and with obvious exaggeration, invites the folks to check Jesus out with these words: Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.” And then she raises the question, “Could this be the Christ?” I love one commentators notes that state, “Her question seems full of longing, as though she did not expect them to say Yes, but she could not say No.”

This lady has already begun to trust her life to Jesus as the Christ, her Messiah. Her life is already beginning to change. Salvation is at hand! And like any faithful believer, she cannot keep herself to such excitement. She must spread it to others. Which brings us to point three Spread the word about His Salvation (vv. 29, 39-42)

To tell everyone you know what God has done in your life. Look what happened in this community, in verses 39-42: “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.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of what he said, 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.”

You see they went from second-hand knowledge to first-hand believers. There’s a saying that God doesn’t have any grandchildren, only children. These people knew they needed a personal relationship with the savior, and they found one.

There is a book titled Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry, and in it she talks about how God grabbed her attention in the midst of a gay lifestyle, and helped her to fall in love with him first and foremost. Out of that, God began to change her life. Now, she is an accomplished speaker, author, wife, and mother. And in her gift of words, she describes the indescribable grace that reached out to someone like her. Now instead of using her words to promote a lifestyle contrary to the Word of God she utilizes her words to spread the message about His salvation.

I wonder how long it has been since you have told anyone about Jesus? I remember there was a midweek bible study I was a part of a few years ago and there was a question posed, which was when was the last time you were a part of a Gospel Conversation in which the Gospel was presented in such a way that someone could respond? It was also suppose to be in a context of outside the Church walls. Did you know that for many and this is nothing against them that was a hard question to answer. You see the problem is, we forget how much he has rescued us. Over time, we lose our excitement; we take our rescue for granted. We don’t let the gospel message penetrate our hearts with a daily freshness like we need to do. If we really realized how far God has brought us-from death to life-we would have more of a sense of urgency to share his salvation with others. There is another side to this, however, and it is how we do this. Don’t take this as me promoting what has often become the norm within Christendom and Evangelicalism in the way of we give a short power sermon/presentation of the Gospel, give an opportunity to answer, and then we are on our way. There is a place and time for that for sure, like you should be bold and courageous in your appeal to the lost, but and Jackie talks about this as well as does Judah Smith, how you present that Gospel makes a difference. How often you present that Gospel message makes a difference, are you truly invested in that person’s life, are you truly loving that person where they’re at and willing to walk alongside them. Let’s go farther are you willing to have those conversations continually over a span of time knowing that they may never respond in a the way that you intend and still you’re willing to love them? Listen, I love sharing the gospel with those I come in contact with, and I always believe in giving people the opportunity to respond on the spot but I’ll never stop there. Often my conversations start with building a relationship with the person, understanding who they’re as a person, where they’re coming from, what their hopes and ambitions are, then I start to pour into them the truth of the Gospel and how much they need Christ in their life and this may be in a single conversation or it might be over a series of conversations that span in some cases well over a year. But regardless I am there for them and the point that I really want them walking away with is that I love them and most importantly Christ loves them! Then after they are saved what? right like here is where we really need to get real and realize that we have done an awful job as a whole within the Church as Jeremiah would say the Big C right the whole church of Christ spread out throughout the entire world. We don’t follow up, we don’t continue to pour into their life and walk alongside them as we live out our faith journey and life and they live out theirs. We aren’t encouraging, we aren’t equipping, and we aren’t moving forward with a mission of making disciples. This year, the hope is that through the preaching and hearing of God’s word we become better disciples who make more disciples! That was the inention of the final command that still exists for all of us even today. Which leads us to our final question that revolves around our spritual health, because we can’t share what we don’t have, we can’t give what we haven’t freely recieved.

How do you keep your salvation fresh? Listen, it sounds elementary it sounds like something you’d hear in a children or youth class maybe phrased a bit differently dependent on the age group at hand but ultimately to the same end. The answer is just as simple and yet often overlooked and neglected. Stay in God’s Word. Listen to the testimonies of others. Spend time with a brand-new Christian, and let their enthusiasm wear off on you. Read or listen to books that are edifying to your spirit and spiritual maturity. Finally, and most definitely not least share the Gospel with those in whom you have the privilege to encounter.

Look around and you find a world that is tormented with anxiety and fear, news outlets and social media are swarmed with stories of new variants, deaths, national disaster, and man made terror in all forms, with all of this going on there is no better time to tell someone about Jesus. We all need the Lord. None of us know how much time we have left on this planet. We all need saving, from our sin and ourselves. We all need a real, personal, and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that will endure any storm and ultimately last forever.

So with that in mind I would like to close out this service as we do every service with an opportunity to make a public pronouncement of your faith. Maybe you’re here today and you feel the shame and guilt of all of your past mistakes, maybe you like the woman at the well find yourself doing everything in your power to come up with a reason to not address it and you want to get that right God by accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Please come to the front and myself or one of the Deacons would love to pray with you and rejoice with you as you make that decision. Maybe you are here and you’re saying I am save, I know I am going to heaven but I am struggling, the flesh side of me is strong and I am having a difficult time truly surrendering to God, truly embracing His grace and Love that enables me to be transformed into a committed disciple of Him. Come on up we will pray with you and rejoice with you as you make that decision to rededicate your life to Him. Finally, if there is anything that you have that is weighing on your heart do not leave here today with getting that right with God, the altars are always open and it is now for you.