John 4:13

John 4:13- 42

Intro:

I grew up in Lutheran school and in that church. We had some beautiful liturgical Christmas events and concerts where we were a children’s choir and did a program. Every year without fail we would sing joy to the world and every year we struggled to sing in excelsis deo.

We all just sang “in egg shells is deo” like everyone does and we would be reprimanded until we uttered the correct sound without any idea what we were saying. For those of you still wondering excelsis deo means Glory to God in the highest. I may have just solved decades of searching for some of you.

But this time of year, we are immersed in words and rhythms we rarely know the meaning of deeply if we are honest. Like egg shells this day oh we say the words but miss the meaning until we box up the nativity scene until next year.

I want us to stop for a minute this morning and ponder these familiar things and see with fresh eyes what they really mean.

If it is true that this baby born in a barn 2000 years is Immanuel “God with US” it changes everything. He himself says to us to “Look, Behold I am making all things new”

We are going to be in John 4 this morning to see what Christmas means in our everyday life.

From the life and ministry of Jesus we see what Christmas means. He truly makes all things new.

We are going to be looking at 4 Things in this text:

An Old Problem: 13-15

A New Story: 16-23

A New Purpose: 28-35

A New Meaning of Miracle: 39-42 (Ezekiel 37 & verse 10 the gift is the spirit that is making dead things live)

Let’s dive into the text and walk through what the Lord has for us this morning

John 4:13- 42 READ TEX

In order to have something New we have to have something old that has to go away so we see here the first point

A. An Old Problem: verses 13-15

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[a] 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.”

This is a passage about physical and longings of the heart that we all have. We are people like the woman we are introduced too here

It doesn’t take long on this earth to see, on a fundamental level, things are not how they are supposed to be

We, like here, are searching for the things and ways of this world to quench our hearts deepest thirsts and longings. We cannot find what we long for because things are not how they are supposed to be.

Sam Alberry says “thirst in this narrative is used as a matter of desires, appetites, needs, and of wanting to find satisfaction” (87).

Genesis 2 takes us back to the very beginning and where this old problem comes from. Genesis 2:10 says that a River of life flowed out of perfect Eden and brought life to what God has made.

Eden was the place of flourishing, longings fulfilled, and immeasurable satisfaction in life.

This River of life brought unimaginable abundant life. So abundant that on its banks God sprung up the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Abundance. Fullfillment and restfull satisfaction in the creator.

One chapter later in Genesis 3 we see the shattering of the life we had in Eden.

Sin shattered the flourishing God had made and we have inherited the results of the fall and continued in the rebellion against Gods kingship, design, and instruction.

We were made to be people who have longings and deep heart loves fully met and satisfied in our Creator. Sin creates a loss of the source of that fullfillment but not a loss of the longings.

One author says it better than I can he says “To be human is to have a heart. You can’t Not love. SO the question isn’t whether you will love something as Ultimate; the question is what you will love as ultimate. You are what you love”

We all bet our life on some savior.

We want something to bring our version of the good life to reality.

We sin when we look to find our story our meaning for love truth and goodness in anything outside of God.

We thirst. We are restless. Saint Augustine is one of the fathers of our historical faith and he said in the 400’s,

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Since Eden every person who has lived has longed and been restless and lived in a world not as it was made to be because we live separated from God and we cannot fix it ourselves.

GK Beale says this about this universal problem: “Who will open the way back to Gods presence? Are we endlessly condemned to our lives east of Eden? Jesus opens up the way back into God’s Presence by the sacrifice of His body. As a result, the life giving waters that flowed in Eden now flow in and through those who believe in Jesus.”

What Christmas means for our greatest and oldest problem is that we cannot save ourselves. Help had to come from outside of our world

Dorothy Sayers was a British Novel writer in the early 1900’s. She wrote crime novels and the main character in her books was Lord Peter Whimsy.

Whimsy was a bachelor in her books and alone when not on the case solving crimes. Eventually a young woman appeared in the books. The character had the same biography as Sayers the author and what became clear was this.

Sayers saw her main character as broken unfulfilled and alone. Unable to fix himself. So she wrote herself into the story to save him from his heartache.

Christmas means that God has written himself in to our story at immeasurable cost. At immeasurable pain. This really happened and He did it to give you a new story.

This is what we see next

Christmas means we have a New Story

B. A New Story verses 16 - 23

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.[a] Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him.

If you were Jesus’ campaign manager. Or the PR person for team Jesus you would have done this completely different.

It is easy to miss but Jesus has just revealed himself as THE source of life for all people for all times in verse 13.

IT is the water “that I give” he said. This is scandal to the known religious world.

This is the first time in the book of John that Jesus makes this self revelation. A triumphant statement that He is God. And he has made it here?

Now in these verses He has just shattered the standing religious activity and practice to reach God. The sacrificial system was built on these mountains and sacrifice for sin on these mountains was the only way to atone for sin.

AND

Jesus has just redefined the people of God!!!

These revelations should have come in front of the power players of Israel in Jerusalem or to build an army to storm Rome and overthrow the greatest world power the world had ever known. It definitely would and should Not come here in a forgotten place. Not with her, a forgotten 5 times divorced woman.

Jesus is in a forgotten place talking to what seems to be a forgotten woman.

The story of Israel had been brutal on Samaria. And the story of her life had been brutal to her soul.

A Forgotten Place: Jews had no dealings with Samaritans and considered them unclean. That meant being in the same vicinity as they made you ceremonially unclean They were a passed around nowhere place, that the power players thought best forgotten. An unclean forgettable place.

It wasn’t always this way here. Where they are standing the greats had been. But those hey days were long gone.

A Forgotten Person: She is an outcast person in an outcast place. We learn here simply by the time of day she is getting water that she is somone everyone avoids. And we just learned why.

This woman had to travel at an anti-social hour at the most oppressive time of day alone.

In the ancient world it was men not women who could initiate a divorce. That means that 5 times she was deemed leave able by a man she thought loved her. 5 times she was forgettable. She was unclean and forgettable

Why here ?

Because the kingdom of God comes in a barn not in a Cathedral.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong”

And like His birth he has chose the most upside down way to come as King and claim His people.

In the New Testament the worshippers of God Jesus describe here are called the Bride of Christ. John 3 has identified Jesus as the Groom and he as written himself intot the brokenness of His Brides story to redeem her, make her new, and give her a new story

We see this in Ephesians, Revelation, and in 2 Corinthians 11:2

Listen to Paul’s words here: 2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, because I have promised you in marriage to one husband—to present a pure virgin to Christ.

Keep this passage in mind because I want to show you in this event what only the Author of Life and King of Kings can do with our broken stories.

In Genesis 24 we find the story of the great father of the faith Abraham looking for a bride for his son Isaac.

Ironically at a well.

The party representing the groom is tired in Genesis and sits at a well. At that time he sits the virgin bride Rebekah comes to draw water and offers a drink. She is perfect and without blemish and the bride of Isaac.

But Isaac and Abraham and Jacob were all pointing to this ultimate Israel and faithful son Jesus.

As we have seen described as the groom. As Isaac sat next to a well in the heat in search of His bride so we find Jesus. But unlike Isaac, Jesus has 5 times divorced unclean woman who He has to ask for a drink.

A woman the world has used and thrown away. A failure and forgotten by everyone. Left to a life of shame in the desert.

She thinks she is unclean and forgettable, but she doesn’t know this Jesus.

But as D.A. Carson says, “She does not know that far from being defiled by what is unclean, Jesus Sanctifies all HE touches” (218)

Do you see this !!! Are you serious?!

The author of Life has come to us to redeem his bride. The broken the lost the unwanted the guilty and shamed.

He took the unlovable and made her part of His Bride. He made her new. Gave her a new story not of rejection and shame

And it says it took place at the sixth hour…the same time of day he will later take His peoples sin on himself and be crucifed.

He became outcast. Sent outside Jerusalem. And Cried out as he did here in thirst nailed the cross. He became sin and shame for her in her place to have her and us forever.

A new story of infinite love unimaginable and life altering.

Are you here today and feel like she did that day at the well? Life has not been what you had longed for? He is calling to the weak and broken to come to Him and be made new.

He gives a new story to the broken and seeks and saves and washes clean the least of these and presents us as washed clean a

And as we see time and time again, He does this by writing himself into our story. Christmas changes everything about your story.

Christmas means that you are loved more than you could ever imagine and He will stop and nothing to make you clean and new.

When things happen in your life that make you doubt that just look at this re writing of a story that only the God and author of life can do:

C. A New Purpose: 28-35

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[a]your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready[b] for harvest.

This woman just went from shame and hiding from the people of this town to dropping everything to tell everyone about this Jesus.

You can only do this if the Gospel of Christmas has changed your life and heart.

His story set you free because it is a message of Salvation by Grace alone. You cannot earn it. And you cannot live as if you are too good for it. Neither way of life leads to freedom to be who God has made you to be.

Tim Keller says “if you hold to either position your life will be characterized by fear and insecurity because you will never feel like you are being good enough, or you will be full of pride and anger if for others if you think you are too good for it”

He goes on to say or you can believe the truth about Christmas. Then you can get an identity that is humbled out of your pride but affirmed and loved out of your insecurity”

She experienced Grace and it sent her insecurity out of her and the river of life of faith in Christ couldn’t be closed in.

One Commentator says “in her eagerness to enjoy the new and living water she abandons the old water jar”

When we look at when God first creates us in His image in the Garden of Eden we are made with a purpose.

That purpose was to spread Gods perfect rule and flourishing they had in Eden to the whole earth outside the Garden. From the beginning we were made to be missional people

The New Life of New Creation that can only come from Jesus restores us to what we were created for.

In verse 35 of this passage we see that the woman has got it. But the disciples with Jesus still don’t get it. They still don’t see

We give the disciples a hard time but we aren’t too different.

What would you think marked the Kingdom of God and its Mission in power?

Isn’t Jerusalem where the power players are? And all the crowds?

Isn’t the King who will occupy Davids throne forever going to have to get to the big stage?

Performance and shock and awe. Every fake messiah that ever caused a stir did it in Jerusalem. This is what they expected it to look like?

How will the Kingdom of our Messiah measure up? How will our church ministry measure up? We are no different

We assess our place in Gods mission by the worlds metrics. But the Gospel gives us a new lens to see the mission.

the mission of God is before our eyes.

Pastor Zack Eswine says “God invites us to himself for the sake of local people in a local place. The great work to be done is right in front of you with the persons and places that his providence has granted you” (249)

Things are not how they were meant to be. Right here in the lives around us

The New Purpose we gain is the mission of God is to be an active participant in Gods recovering and Redeeming what We were intended for in EDEN and sin and death have stolen.

Right here where we are. Jesus is pleading in this passage to look up look at what is in front of you!!

Listen to this passage again and picture what Jesus saw as He spoke these words in verse 35 “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”

Ancient attire would be white cloth wrapped around the head and face to cool them in the heat of the climate.

So, Jesus is watching the white of the heads of the lost walking at a distance to Him and disciples as he says “Look Lift up your eyes!! The harvest is White and coming and ready”

Real People are walking to them from the village. Not an imaginary crowd in a famous city where influence can be won. Jesus is in a forgotten place and no named people are walking to them. And this is the Harvest the King came for

Dead hearts are ready to come alive he is telling US as be did his disciples in this very place and time!!!

The mission he gives is to occupy a place and a people desperately empty and longing. With desperate need for new hearts. We are given a new mission just as the disciples were. To look up see the people who will be drawn to the story of the Gospel. To live in a specific time and place he has set creating a movement of death to life stories.

We don’t need it to be in the Jerusalem of our day. We just need to be faithful.

One pastor says “obscurity and greatness are not opposites”

Miracles are happening all around the world in obscure moments of faithfulness

This is what we see lastly. Our definition of the miraculous made new.

We see New definitions of Miracle

D. A New Meaning of Miracle: 39-42

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.”

Christmas means that God has written himself into our story to do what we can never do.

Look at what happens in verse 40.

He stayed there 2 Days!!!

The King of Kings is close to His coronation on a Cross. He has come to fullfill all prophecy.

And what does he do. …He does what he came to do ………..To be with us

WE sing and read His name Immanuel often this time of year.

Immanuel Means God with us and he longs to be with us in the mundane and forgettable of our days because we will encounter souls who know something is wrong with the world, people who have tasted pains and joys and sorrow and worry who look to the things of the world to make it right and it never can.

We are called to let this Jesus rewrite our story. Re enchant us with His new mission in the world and see the miraculous as We see Him in the everyday in a forgotten place among forgotten faces.

Places and people He made to worship and live with Him and places sin has made shattered. But places He is making New.

WE see the miraculous in the everyday when we become part of His mission as His servants.

In Mark 10:34 He says “whoever would be great among you must be your servant”.

Zack Eswine says “servants give their days to small mostly overlooked tasks over long periods of time with no accolade” (30).

We enter into a daily apprenticeship with Him to learn a new way to live in freedom and new life

A daily apprenticeship with Jesus is a miracle. That process creates miracles all around you every day.

The Gospel accepted and lived out in a forgotten place by people the world has forgotten shakes the universe.

Listen to 1 Peter 1:12

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look

Angels long to look in to the Gospel in our life in the day to day.

Have you gotten over the miracle of New life in your heart?

A big spectacle has never been the Lords way.

Born in a barn in a backwoods village. Nothing He has done was for the bright spotlight it was done for you.

That is why at the end of this passage they Samaritans exclaim that Jesus Is the Savior of the World”

Greek gods were called savior, even Roman Emporers. The Samaritans were looking for a messiah called Taheb.

This exclamation is the world seeing this Jesus in light of all the other false gods that have never delivered and saying we have found The Savior.

This is the one.

This is the one the Wise Men knew was King when He was two in Bethlehem.

The world knows He is Savior. Do You? Do you know Him?