Witness: Samaritan Woman
Notes
Transcript
John 4:1-30
INTRODUCTION
JFK- Moon Speech (Play video of speech)
But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.
However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the term of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade.
The goal was clear: land on the moon.
The reason we succeeded was we had a strategy.
This is true of the church - Sunday night after business meeting and December 12 at 4:00.
This is also true of sharing the Gospel.
Do you have a plan or are you hoping it happens by accident?
4 And he had to pass through Samaria.
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 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.
7 A woman from 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.)
9 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.)
10 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.”
11 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?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
14 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.”
15 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.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 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.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
3 Parts of Jesus' Witnessing Strategy
Jesus Witnessed Through a Life of Purpose
Jesus Witnessed Through a Life of Purpose
(go with purpose into the world)
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
As you go with purpose. Imperative clause with a destinat in mind.
“Go and make disciples in the nations.”
As you live with purpose among the nations, make disciples.
Jesus was not randomly walking around from town to town.
3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
4 And he had to pass through Samaria.
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
He would go to Jerusalem for certain holidays because it was part of his ministry plan.
He had a purpose for every place he visited.
Here he comes to Samaria.
It was an area that Jews avoided. Samaritans were half Jews.
They were seen as traitors. They were hated and therefore avoided at all cost.
They could not prove their genealogy. Since they couldn't worship in Temple they built their own.
Jesus traveled with his disciples through Samaria on purpose.
His life was about ministry. "Seek and to save the lost"
He came to Sychar with an agenda.
Jesus Witnessed Through Directed Conversation
Jesus Witnessed Through Directed Conversation
Jesus knew where he wanted the conversation to go and directed it to that end.
He used what was obvious in front of them and used it to explain a spiritual principle.
There is no way to direct a conversation without it eventually becoming awkward. Be bold yet sensitive.
6 Parts of Conversation
Introduced Free Gift (10)
Introduced Free Gift (10)
10 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.”
Revealed Unknown Need (10b, 13-14)
Revealed Unknown Need (10b, 13-14)
she didn't realize spiritual need. Many don't realize, "...will not perish..."
10 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.”
13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
14 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.”
Offered Eternal life (14b)
Offered Eternal life (14b)
14 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.”
Spiritual thirst quenched for eternity.
ILL-- Richman and Lazarus-- Richman experienced eternal thirst.
Frank (17-18)
Frank (17-18)
17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
Stayed On Point (19-24)
Stayed On Point (19-24)
did not get side-tracked by a question. Used it to point back to salvation.
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 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.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Focused on Jesus (25-26)
Focused on Jesus (25-26)
25 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.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
"I am the way the truth and the life..." John 14:6
Jesus Witnessed Through Spiritual Need
Jesus Witnessed Through Spiritual Need
(did not stop with physical)
She had a need for living water that would bring spiritual purification.
She was there to satisfy a physical need and didn't realize she had a bigger need.
The Hope Clinic-- People will come because of a physical need. We pray they leave with spiritual healing.
Samaritan woman confused physical with spiritual. Jesus offered spiritual and she assumed physical.
Same as Nicodemus in John 3
These two people couldn't have been more different.
Yet, they both struggled to see spiritual over physical.
He saw her as lost- not broken.
23 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.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Broken can be fixed.- we don't fix people.
don't look at their sins as parts of their lives that need to be fixed.
Broken can be fixed by fixing the way you think or through a lifestyle change.
"If you just think more positive." "If you just started eating healthier."
Jason Allen, President of MBTS, “...Jesus died for more than your behavior modification; he died to redeem you and all that entails.”
Jesus changes people from the inside out.
Lost can only be saved.-- What they need is to be saved. Then those things will change.
Jesus offered her living water, not a way to fix her relationship with her man.
People don’t need their lives fixed. They need forgiveness.
When we think of people as broken we think they need to change before they can be saved.
Salvation will fix what is broken. Come as you are.
A person must realize they are lost before they can get saved.
Jesus pointed out this lady's sin in order to prove he was the Messiah, but also to help her realize she had a need for a Savior.
Most in our society think they are good. Because they have changed the rules to qualify themselves.
Franklin Graham, Rt 66 God Loves You Tour- 7,100 people heard gospel. 680 made a decision for Christ.
He presented a simple gospel message.
But he called out sin and that Jesus loved them enough to die for that sin.
Without being lost there is not a need to be saved.
CONCLUSION
You have a spiritual need.
Sin has separated you from God but God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for you.
The people you see every day have a spiritual need.
Samaritan woman became a bold witness that brought revival to her city.
28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,
29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that 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 And many more believed because of his word.
42 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.”
You may be the only opportunity they have to hear the good news of Jesus.