The Surprising Power of One

The Passage we are going to look at this morning is significant for many reasons that we will see...

But there are three primary reasons: (Not original to me…This is from another pastor named HB CHARLES…who in my opinion is one of the best preachers alive today)

HB CHARLES said this story is signficant for 3 primary reasons:

It’s Length—It is the longest recorded conversation that we have of Jesus talking with anyone…even the disciples.

It’s Placement— it is right after John 3…where we find one of the most important conversations in Jesus’ ministry where Jesus has a converstaion with Nichodemus....and as you read through this story, we should feel the tension between these two very different people.

A Man--

The man is named, Nichodeamus.

Nichodeamus is a man of significance.

Nichodeamus is a man of popularity and influence.

Nichodeamus is a man of power and authority.

He is the prototypical religious elite... known for his morality. He was accepted by everyone...

The Samaritan Woman—on the otherhand is the exact oppositte of Nichodeamus...

She was Unnamed...

She had no power, influence, or authority.

She was, by all worldly standards, insignificant and unimportant.

Where Nichodeamus was known for his moral life…this woman’s highlight of her story is her grave immorality...

HERE IS A REMINDER:

John 3 teaches us that everyone is in NEED of grace…no matter how moral they may be.

And John 4 teaches us that everyone, no matter how immoral they are, is beyond the REACH of grace.

It’s Message

In this story we see the message of salvation.

That Jesus had come not to condemn sinners…but to save them.

John 3:16–17 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

And in this story this morning…we see just that…that Jesus had come to save all

And if I could add one thing that makes this story so significant this morning…I would add this.

JESUS SHOWS US HIS PROCESS...

Jesus’ Priority

Jesus priority in each of these stories is ONE person.

Jesus ministered to people... one person at a time...

He identified one person…he engaged one person…and he would eventually offer the message of salvation to one person…at a time.

Look at the scene of this story...

John 4:1–4 ESV

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria.

v. 4 is ironic...

Geographically speaking, Jesus didnt HAVE to pass through the region of Samaria. Jewish people sometimes took other routes around Samaria because they hated Samaritans. Like really really hated Samaritans.

The reason they hated Samaritans so much is complex. But it was rooted in the history of Israel being overtaken by the Assyrian empire 700 years before. Most Jewish people tried to seperate themselves from the Assyrians, but not all of them did. Some of the gave into Assyrian culture, and Assyrian religion, some even began to intermarry with Assyrians and have children with them…those children were Samaritans.

Samaritans had establish their own religious tradtions…even building their own Temple on Mt. Gerizem.

Samaritans had helped the Romans by allowing Rome to set up their military base in Samaria to control the region.

And so devote Jewish people saw Samaritans as rivals. Both religiously and politically...

And so Jesus ignored over 5 centuries of animosity between Jews and Samaritans…and yet…John tells us that ”v.4—He had to pass through Samaria”

The reason why Jesus HAD to pass through Samaria was because this woman…this woman who by all worldly standards was totally immoral, powerless, and insignificant…was his priority.

And we see that in what happens once he meets with her...

John 4:5–9 ESV

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.)

John by telling us the details in this story is communicating something important that we need to understand:

This woman was by herself---that is significant because typically women didnt go to the well by themselves....they went in groups.

She was at the well in the middle of the day, “About the sixth hour.” The Jewish day typically began at Sun-Up…so around 6am. This would have put the woman at the well at lunch-time. When no other women were there...

Why? Probably because she had a reputation…She was too ashamed of herself to be around other women…She knew the way she lived her life wasnt ladylike…it was a lot easier to just avoid people altogether...

Jesus engaged her in a conversation by himself—this would have been a social taboo in this time and place. One commentator said it this way, If you are in a stranger in a Middle Eastern village, it would not be culturally acceptable for you to make eye contact with a woman in a public place…much less have a conversation…especially without witnesses around.

You dont do that with any woman…and especially with a woman who has a past...

What is the point of all of this?

The point is clear…Jesus was making this woman…this woman who had been outcasted by society…this woman who had a past…this woman who was rejected and despised…he was making her…HIS priority.

So he had to pass through Samaria…because God had made saving one woman his priority...

Let me as you a question, Christian...When is the last time you had to go somewhere because God had put someone on your heart?

Jesus went to Samaria because he had “A ONE”

When is the last time you had a “ONE”?

Have you ever?

Just last week I was having a conversation with our outreach director here at the church…explaining to her where I feel like God is leading us over the course of the next few months...

Jesus Proclaimed One Message

John 4:9–15 ESV

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.”

Jesus gets right to the point…he tells her who he is…this is the first “I AM” statement that Jesus makes. Identifying himself with the I AM-YHWH.

And what he tells this woman is that he himself offers her water from a well that never runs dry.

Wells can offer water…but Jesus offers satisfaction and life...

And the woman responds… “Sir…I give me this water so I dont have to be thrisrty again...”

Aka…I dont want to have to come to this well anymore anyways...

She misses Jesus’ point…so he drives it home a little more...

John 4:16–26 ESV

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.” 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.”

This is the point…of this passage...

And it is complex so I want to make it simple...

Jesus tells this woman that what she has been longing for and hoping for…was not in a place of worship…but in a person.

She had been longing for the Messiah to come and set her free…and here was that messiah.

John 4:25–26 ESV

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.”

Jesus says that he is the long awaited Messiah.

He is the one who offers forgivness and life.

He is the one who transforms the hearts stale religious people into hearts that worship in spirit and in truth.

And, upon hearing that message, that Jesus is the messiah, that he is the wellspring of life…this woman is transformed...

John 4:27–30 ESV

27 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?” 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.

transformation…real lasting transformation…only comes through an encounter with the message of Jesus Christ.

and if we want to reach anyone…we must proclaim this same message.

That Jesus is the way , the truth, and the life, and that noone gets to the father but by him.

The ONE Challenge

John 4:31–38 ESV

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 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. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

YOu and I, church, we are called to be laborers in the field of harvest.

Just like Jesus made “one” person his priority.

Just like Jesus engaged people one at a time…we are called to engage people one at a time