Jesus' Passion

Intro

Good morning church! I am so excited to be with you this morning! Listen: you picked the greatest day to be at church because today we’re kicking off a brand new series- Takin’ It To The Streets.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be taking a look at what it might look like if as a church we commited to living life on mission. Now, when we say “on mission” or we talk about the word “Mission”, maybe you start thinking about missions trips or living in a third world country and sharing the gospel. But if we zoom out a little bit, in a broader way, when we say “mission”, we are talking about an important task or assignment.

The word ‘Mission’ is defined this way, you can see it on the screens: it’s a task coupled with a passion or conviction also defined as being sent for a specific purpose.

God the Father sent Jesus to be here with us to be the Living Gospel to bring hope to a lost and hurting world. There was a specific task, and deep sense of passion with this sending. And today, Jesus has sent us out to share and proclaim that same gospel to our communities because He is passionate about seeing the lost come home!

Swimming Illustration:

There’s a guy named Samuel. When Sam was in elementary school, he found out that he was the only kid in his class who couldn’t swim.

Once a week, his class went to the school swimming pool for lessons. But the swim teacher really didn’t know what to do with him. See, up to that point, all of her other students could already swim, even if they weren’t that good. So when they got into the pool and started class, all his instructor would do was yell at him: “swim!”

But the command was useless to him. If he could already swim, he would have been doing it! So yelling “swim” at him didn’t make him magically receive the ability to swim. So he spend most of those classes clinging to the edge of the pool.

See, If people can’t swim, there’s no point in yelling “swim” at them. But this is exactly the way many pastors and christian leaders try to motivate believers to evangelize, isn’t it? Urging just people on a Sunday morning, “Tell your friends about Jesus” without telling you how can just make you feel guilty, overwhelmed, and disheartened, right? But you and I weren’t made to just cling to the edge of the pool.

And the truth is, that sharing our faith shouldn’t be something that puts knots in our stomaches. And my desire is that today, God’s Word will put you at ease and give you the confidence to push off the edge.

So today, I want to start the conversation of living “on mission” by sharing our faith without having to be afraid or feel uncomfortable.

If you have your bible with you, go ahead and open it up to John chapter 4. If you don’t have a bible with you today , its completely fine, we’ll have it up on the screens and if you don’t have your own copy of the bible, please make sure you stop by one of the prayer stations up front and one of our amazing Dream Teamers would love to get you one before you leave today.

John 4, let’s start with verse 1. Let’s read that together...

Passage

John 4:1–10 ESV

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

This morning as we open up this series I want to preach to you a message I’ve simply called ‘Jesus’ Passion’. Will you pray with me?

Pray

Video: Woman at the Well (4:36)

Jesus’ Passion. In our passage, we see a woman with a desperate need, not unlike many others in the city. But why Jesus ministered to this woman remains a little bit of a mystery. See, unlike the others in the city: she didn’t seek Jesus out. He came looking for her.

We read that He came to a small village in Samaria and engaged in a conversation with a woman of questionable character. This was a woman whose own people rejected her. This was a woman marked by regret and remorse.

And as we look deeply into this passage, we see four things that Jesus did that can serve as a model for us as we set out to take the gospel to the streets.

First, we see that...

1. Jesus Passionately Pursues the World

Jesus’ ministry in Judea was growing too popular for the Pharisees, so He decided it was time to go to Galilee, where the authority of the Sanhedrin was less rigorous. And when the text says “Jesus had to go through Samaria”, it doesn’t mean it was the only route to travel. There were a couple of different routes that Jesus could have used to get to Galilee:

(1) The first one was longer, and it was the one more commonly traveled route by self-righteous Jews. The reason being that this one would have taken him around Samaria and along the Jordan Valley. Remember: Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along. And because of the family history of the Samaritans, the Jews always saw them with suspicion and mistrust.

For me it’s like when I would go downtown with my friends and my parents would warn me about Spring Street. There were feelings associated with Samaria for them.

(2) The other route was shorter, and more direct route that would have taken Jesus through Samaria. And knowing well the prejudice of the day: Jesus would have no part in it. He won’t bypass anyone on this planet that is in need of Him.

And Jesus travels this second route, the woman is surprised at the appearance Him- a Jew- in the middle of Samaria. She was alone and by a well at noon, the hottest time of the day. She would have much rather come early in the morning with the other ladies. But because of her past and maybe some bad decisions: she would rather endure the heat and isolation than the cold stares and whispers.

At one time she was a beautiful woman – but now she had aged beyond her years with deep scars in her heart. She had endured five unsuccessful marriages, broken relationships, and abuse. She was now living with man #6… and even in spite of the hurt she experienced, there was no marriage on the horizon with this one.

So isolated and alone, she carries a much heavier emotional load than the water pot she came to fill. “How did my life get so messed up? Where did it all go wrong?” But this day would change her life forever. Jesus, in passion, had come on mission to seek and save the lost.

Listen, church: this is the kind of weight that those in Goose Creek are carrying each and every day. Everyone everywhere needs to hear about Jesus. No one, no matter how far away or disconnected they may be is outside the reach of His passionate pursuit. So what does passionately pursuing the world look like in our life as we set out to share our faith?

It simply means going where the need is. Just as Jesus didn’t bypass Samaria, we shouldn’t bypass those difficult neighbors or annoying coworkers. Because everyone everywhere needs to hear about Jesus.

But not only does Jesus passionately pursue the world, we also see that...

2. Jesus Freely Offers New Life

Today, we go to any faucet in our house or any water fountain just about anywhere and just turn the handle- water! But this woman had to make a journey everyday to get that basic necessity!

So Jesus arrives at the well, He’s tired and thirsty, and He asks this woman for a drink of water. But as they talk, we know that this encounter led to a much more in-depth conversation about Spirit and Thirst and Living Water.

Can’t you just see God at work? He isn’t there to simply quench her physical thirst – He was there to meet her greatest need.

This conversation happened at Jacob’s well- a historical sight that would have represented the old order of the law. Do this, and God will approve of you. But the amazing thing was that God’s age of grace had come in Jesus. See, the law could not bring life, and she well knew it. Only the Spring of water – springing up to eternal life could. We know that Spring is Jesus.

Speaking of Jesus, look at what the prophet Isaiah says...

Isaiah 35:6 ESV

then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;

When Jesus comes on the scene: everything changes!

I love how Jesus paints this picture: see, he reminded the woman that though she found fulfillment in the water from Jacob’s well, that water could dwindle in supply. It could be filled with rocks and debris. And isn’t this just what we do? We tend to place our hope and trust in the quick fixes that bring us satisfaction immediately, even though though they aren’t lasting solutions.

But the Living Water of Jesus offers an eternal quench for the woman’s deepest thirst forever – not just for a day!

Church: every place of worldly amusement or pleasure and all the things that seem to offer us security will ultimately run dry. But Living Waters quench and revive the parched, dry human spirit if we will allow ourselves to move out from under the power of the past.

And maybe for some of you today, like the woman at the well, you’re finding yourself trapped under years of generational curses and other family tensions. Pete Scazzero has an amazing teaching on how we can biblically get free from the power of the past, and I want to very quickly give these to you, and we’re going to put it on the screens for you if you’re writing them down here they are:

Acknowledge how the blessings and sins of your family (going back several generations) impacts who you are today.

Recognize that you have been birthed into a new family- the family of Jesus.

Put off the sinful patterns of your family and culture; and learn how to live in the family of Jesus.

As we share our faith with those around us, we can rest easy knowing that we don’t have to oversell anything or try to convince people of why they should respond to the love of God. We just need to help them see that with Jesus our past won’t hold us hostage anymore.

So we see that Jesus passionately pursues the world, He freely offers new life, and then, third...

3. Jesus Graciously Removes Our Shame

Listen: if Jesus giving us new life wasn’t enough to make you shout- this should be! Look back at verse 14 again...

John 4:14 ESV

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.”

As Jesus says these words, what a train of memories those words must have evoked! Her mind flashed back to a time of innocence. When she met a man she was sure would love and cherish her till death do them part. But somehow, that early flame became a faint flicker.

Growing coldness – Alienation – Dislike – Divorce. She tried to banish his memory by moving from relationship to the next, four times, and each time became more desperate and wounded. Lonely, restless, desperately looking for belonging – living from one manipulative arrangement to another. Hoping this new “Man” will work out better than the last.

Culture has all but perfected the way of glamorizing sexual sin. We’re known for office affairs, live-in relationships, perversion, pornography & promiscuity. We’re proud to be sexually free & uncommitted. Yet the whole time, we are in bondage to our lust, our loneliness, and our emptiness.

One of the most dangerous parts is that our shame drives us to hide our sins. But nothing we have done escapes the knowledge of God. So as the woman hears those words, why would Jesus awaken those memories and those hurts? Why open the closet and let the skeletons come out?

Because wounds must be addressed in order to be cleansed and bring healing.

Testimony Video (6:54)

Wounds must be addressed in order to be cleansed and bring healing. Just like the story we just heard, there must be a confession or an acknowledgment before forgiveness can happen. So in the gentlest manor possible, Jesus spoke to her most pressing need. In essence – Jesus said “I know you have been rejected by five men; and now a 6th doesn’t even want to commit to you, he just wants to use you!

But there’s a 7th Man – and that’s Jesus - And He will never reject you. For this woman in that moment – the lights go on, an “Ah-Ha” moment of knowing, recognizing & encountering Jesus. It’s amazing – Jesus offers Living Water – knowing fully every detail of her life – all her mistakes, shortcomings, thoughts, and sins. Yet nothing she did in the past had disqualified her from His offer of Living Water. In the eyes of man – This woman’s past would have disqualified her. She is a Samaritan, from the wrong bloodline and just overall from the wrong side of the tracks. But that wasn’t enough to stop Jesus.

See, Satan tries to condemn us by reminding us of our past and shame. And like many would have seen the Samaritan woman, we often may look at others and think God can never save them. They have gone too deep into sin for God to reach. But no one is out of the reach of God’s grace. No one is disqualified from His living water. God wants everyone to find and drink his living water. And he wants to use you as his vessel and bring it to them. It is only by allowing the living water to flow out of us that we can bring His life. He came that we might have life and life to the fullest. That life is only found in Jesus – And He gives liberally to all who will receive.

Three chapters later – we see one of the Jewish feasts, the Feast of Tabernacles. And look at what Jesus says in John 7:

John 7:37–38 ESV

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

Church: it doesn’t matter who you are or what is your current sin condition – the question is the same: are you thirsty? Once you respond to Him – Out of those who are filled “Will flow Rivers of Living Water”. Jesus satisfies our thirst and then allows us to be a conduit of Living Water to others. So she asks for the Living Water. And finally, for the first time this Samaritan is at peace. Her inner shame had been defeated. Her accusing voices had been silenced. She had been loved and accepted. Her past would no longer blackmail her. It had been exposed by the Light of God’s loving repentance. She had been forgiven.

This is the gospel that we share. It’s God taking the shame and guilt that we rightly should be walking in because of our sin and removing it from off of our shoulders. So as we set out to live on mission, and we share our faith with our coworkers, we get the honor of sharing this truth with them: that they’re no longer bound by sin or shame. Jesus came to bring them freedom! And that’s the best news.

But not only is her shame removed… we then see that...

4. Jesus Powerfully Restores our Purpose

“Immediately she went back into same town that had rejected her. - Come see the man”

When you think about the little spiritual truth she had… no bible college, no small group, no growth track – her zeal and Christian witness put us to shame! But God used her – her simple testimony to attract the attention of the entire village. She “left her water pot” – and now nothing could slow her down. She found a passion.

As she set out to live “on mission” – She discovered her purpose - when the woman tasted of God’s grace – the crushing weight of her past was washed away. And when this unexpected news came from such an unlikely source and reached her community, the whole village came out to see for themselves.

The most natural thing we do after we receive God’s grace and love is to tell others. It’s John chapter 4...

John 4:34–38 ESV

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.”

The fields have never been more ready for harvest. People are ready and waiting. They’re disillusioned and secular answers have failed them. They have tried everything in search of peace, security, and fulfillment – only to be left empty. Marriages are breaking. Homes are crumbling. Morals are declining. That is why they are so open to the message of hope and new life in Christ.

There is an essential emptiness in every life that only Christ can fill. The woman at the well’s story – now becomes her testimony. All the town knew her story of her past. But now, as she’s had an encounter with Jesus, she says let me tell you what I experienced – come meet the man, Messiah, that changed everything!

Church: every one of us has a story. Of a time we met Jesus. How he changed our life.

For Some – Jesus pulled me out of muck and mire.

For Others – Jesus protected me As the Good Shepherd – from a wasted life of trying to just live for me.

But for all of us, we can sing the words of Psalm 107...

Psalm 107:1–2 (ESV)

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever!

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so {tell their story},

whom he has redeemed from trouble

Your Story is important; it’s something that no one else can dispute – because it is your story! Tell people what Jesus has done for you, how He changed your life, and how that changes your every day life. I firmly believe these seeds you sow into others will bring a harvest. It will cause them to want what you have.

Revelation 12:11 “They triumphed over him (the accuser) by the blood of the lamb and by the word of his testimony.” So we tell others that Jesus still offers Living Water, so they can be freed from the tyranny of the accuser. His offer of Living Water is still available today!

Sharing our faith with others doesn’t have to be this intimidating thing. It can be as natural as simply sharing our life with people. But it starts with keeping the passion of Jesus in front of us.

On your way in this morning, you received a communion cup with a small wafer on the top. If you’ll go ahead and grab that, I want to set up a holy moment for us to take communion together.

Call for ushers to make elements available in people were missed

One of the greatest ways that we can keep Jesus’ passion in front of us is by slowing down and putting our eyes back on the cross of calvary.

Communion Moment

Jesus and the disciples are eating together- celebrating Passover- when God spared the children of Israel in Egypt years before.

Matthew 26:26 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

This phrase must have struck the disciples- just like it strikes us the first time we hear it. But the symbolism for God’s provision is unmistakable. And just as Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt was remembered in the Passover meal, now, so are we to remember His death every time we take communion.

Matthew 26:27–28 ESV

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

The disciples were familiar with the pouring out of an animal’s blood on the temple altar for the forgiveness of their sins. But Jesus was introducing something new to their understanding. It would no longer be an animal’s blood that would cover sins, but his blood—the blood of the Messiah-King.

Pray to close