What Moves You?

John 4: 5-42

I was on my way to Toronto to interview with the credentials board in the spring after 9/11, and I had to get some gas. I stopped at a gas station that I hadn’t been to in a long time. I was surprised to see new owners. Whenever we haven’t been somewhere or seen someone in a long time, it is always shocking that the present-day reality is not the same as we remember it or the person has changed from how we have placed them.

So when this new fellow came up to the van and asked how much gas I wanted, I was a bit surprised. I told him the amount and then got out of the van to start talking to him. This is how I discovered that he was the owner and not just an employee.

When I went into the little Kiosk to pay for my gas, I noticed he had a bible open on the little counter there. I asked him what he was reading. He told me he was reading the bible and then asked if I had ever read it before. I said I sure have and that I was currently in school studying to become a pastor and that I was actually on my way to an interview in Toronto with the credentials board for the next level of licensing.

His response was somewhat surprising to me. He said, “God has sent you here to teach me. I am having trouble understanding this.”

A couple of things to point out, this man was from Afghanistan, and since 9/11, the people of Cambridge were not so kind to him. Also, he was a relatively new Christian. It was an amazing 20 minute trip to the gas station. I answered his question, encouraged him to keep going on his faith journey, and I got to pray with him.

I got back in my van, drove to Toronto feeling like, “Wow, what just happened there.” It was amazing. A divine appointment orchestrated by God. Sometimes the most life-changing ministry happens during the interruptions of our lives.

This is where we find Jesus today on his way back to Galilee. Our text this morning is John 4:5-42.

Scripture tells us it was about noontime when Jesus sat down by the well, tired and parched from the long journey. The disciples had left him while they went to get some food. He was alone until this nameless woman came to draw some water from the well. Now, this doesn’t seem too absurd to anyone just reading these words, but if we look into the culture, we find that this is indeed very absurd.

You see, the gathering of water was a social time for the woman of the village. It was a time when they would meet in the early morning and catch up on the latest current events, joke, laugh and share life. So the fact that this nameless Samaritan woman was coming at noontime to gather water tells us quite a bit about the lady Jesus encountered this day. She was the one the other woman probably talked about in the morning. She was the one that they made fun of and shamed; it always made her feel like a social outcast. Instead of listening to their ridicule and hurtful remarks, this nameless woman chose to go at noontime in the scorching heat. She tried to save herself from hearing what she was tormented by and carried with her every day. Guilt. Shame. Self-loathing. Rejection. I wonder this morning if any of us have felt this way, feeling dead beneath a load of our own sinfulness. I know I have, how about you?

The lady approaches the well and sees a Jewish man just sitting there. I wonder if she wants to run. I mean, she is coming at this time of day to avoid the ridicule and now, here was a Jewish man just sitting there. She knew the history between the Jews and Samaritans. She knew that Jews were disgusted by the half breeds that they were, that she was. She knew the battles that went on between the north and south. She knew exactly what this man would think of her. She knew. Do you know what this Jewish man thinks of you?

Imagine her surprise when Jesus spoke to her, “Please give me a drink.” I can almost hear the dialogue going on in her head, “What is this man doing? Not only am I a Samaritan, but I am also a woman. Does he not know that he should not be talking to me?” Whatever her thoughts were, I love this woman’s courage. Here is one thing I have learned about victims and social outcasts – even though they feel all these horrible emotions at the right time, there is a boldness that springs forth. They say something like, “You are a Jew. I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?” God-given strength that we didn’t know was in us. Amazing!!!!

Jesus looked right into her eyes and said, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.” How often do we say that “if people only knew Jesus the way I know him, they would love him?” Isn’t it interesting that Jesus says the same thing?

The woman stood there, maybe gave Jesus the once over and said, “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket, and this is a bottomless well. Where would you get this living water? And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well? How can you offer better than he and his sons and his cattle enjoyed?” She could see that he didn’t have the required tools to get the water out of the well, and her tradition was now being questioned. I wonder how often Jesus says I want to do something in your life, in the life of the church, and we look around and think, How will that happen? We don’t have this, and we don’t have that. Because the apparent tools needed are not in plain sight, so we cut Jesus off even before we give him the opportunity to do it; Friends, when will we realize that Jesus defies the odds. He does the impossible. He brings life to dead things. He supplies. We need to believe. When will we start living in this reality and take God out of the box that we have put him in? When?

Jesus then says, “People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

Friends listen to what Jesus is saying here. Our physical longings are a lack of spiritual fulfillment. Dead things never satisfy. Let me say that again; our physical longings are a lack of spiritual fulfillment; dead things never satisfy. When we go after dead things, they always leave us feeling empty, and we develop the mindset of maybe next time. Maybe next time, I will be filled with satisfaction and be at peace. When I was in active addiction, I was forever saying just one more hooray and then I will be done. But the following day would come, and I began living a lie all over again because the last hooray didn’t cut it and just left me wanting more. Maybe it’s not alcohol for you. Perhaps it’s the lotto; I will just get one more ticket because surely it is the winner. I will just have one more cookie then I will be done. I will just work one more hour a day, and that will be enough. What is that you think, I will just do it once more or have it once more, and then I will be done?

You see, friends, it doesn’t matter what it is; the cycle is the same, just like the woman at the well. Her cycle was relationships. Maybe it’s the next guy that is going to be the one. When the next guy came along, she put all her hope in this one person; she gave herself fully to him and then woke up one morning only to discover that the hole was still there. Then begins the feelings of guilt and shame, and she lived in that until the next guy came along. She was searching, and she was thirsty. Thirsty for something, and she didn’t even know what she was even thirsting after.

Imagine how she felt when Jesus offered her living water from a perpetual well that was within her, the spirit of the living God. Oh, the freedom that she could have not to be thirsty any more; to be full, to be at peace.

Have you ever met someone who challenges a truth that has been ingrained in you your whole life? Perhaps this truth that you have held onto has held you captive. It has shaped your thinking. How you act. At some level, whether knowingly or not, it has dictated what you do and where you go. When I was growing up, I was constantly told that I was worthless and that I would never amount to much. Sometimes I was told with words, and sometimes, I was told with actions. But these words shaped my whole life. They determined my actions. They catapulted my steps. When I became a Christian, I was set free from sin, but these words that held me captive held me back from truly embracing all that God was doing in my life because, after all, I was worthless, and he couldn’t use me because I would never amount to much. When I was in Cuba this year, Pastor Osmel was praying for me, and the Lord gave him these words for me, “I have given you the staff of leadership, take it and walk.” These words dramatically changed my life. I no longer felt like I needed to prove my worth in the eyes of man. Or prove that God had called me to be a Pastor, I simply needed to walk with the staff that God had given me, and he would do the rest. When I got back and had my interview in the spring with the credentials board, one of the ladies said, “Something happened to you over in Cuba. You have a quiet confidence that you didn’t have before you left.” You see, I was still held captive by those words that had been so ingrained in me, and I didn’t even know I was hostage until freedom came, just like this woman.

But before she could receive this living water, Jesus and her first had to deal with the sin in her life and in the next moment, Jesus brings it all out in the open, “Go and get your husband.”

Then confession happens, “I don’t have a husband.”

“Your right,” Jesus said, “You don’t have a husband- for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the one you are living with now.”

At that moment, Jesus brought her from darkness to light. In shedding light on the sin that had entangled her life, she was set free. In that moment, she believed that Jesus was someone great. Do you remember that moment when Jesus brought you from darkness to light, and at that moment, you thought that Jesus was someone great? Do you remember taking that step into freedom and feeling the entangled mess in your life dissolve?

Her whole paradigm is shifting, and the one question that comes to mind is what has separated her from the Jews, “so tell me, why is that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”

You notice that Jesus didn’t give her a history lesson or try to prove that the Jews were right and they were wrong. Still, he spoke about the here and now and the future, “A time is coming and is coming when the place we worship is no longer relevant because what the Father is looking for is much deeper than a place, a building built with human hands, no he is looking much deeper than this. He is looking for people who will worship him in Spirit and Truth.

What does that mean, though, to worship in Spirit and Truth? To answer the question, we must first look at Spirit and Truth separately.

So what is Spirit? Spirit is what our fleshly bodies carry. It is what makes us. It is what God breathed into the nostrils of Adam and Eve that gave them life and made them who they were. It is our personalities, our strengths and our weaknesses.

Truth is the reality of our lives as Jesus has exposed it to us. And for us to worship in Spirit and Truth, first, our spirits need to be born again. When we come to God with a born-again heart in the reality of our own life, all the good, the bad, and the ugly, as exposed by Jesus knowing that we are fully forgiven, we will be worshiping in Spirit and Truth.

Society gives us labels to wear – the addict – the single mother – the fat one – the skinny one – the gossiper – the adulterer – the desperate – but for those of us who are saved, we have one label to where and that is redeemed.

The lady ran back to her village and told everyone, “Come meet the man who knew everything I ever did? Could this truly be the Messiah?”

The lady encountered Jesus and moved from darkness to light. All because Jesus spoke to her heart, and she was moved to the point of telling of her whole village what Jesus had done. The question I will leave you with this morning is simply this, “Have you had an encounter with Jesus that has moved you from darkness to light and has left you filled with an eternal well within you? Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father except through me.” Just like a baby is brought into this world only one way, so is the way to eternal life, through Jesus Christ. If you are here this morning and you would like to accept Christ as your personal Saviour, I would invite you to come forward and receive this living water that will quench the thirst of your soul.

Benediction: 2 Corinthians 13:13

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship with the Holy Spirit be with you all.