Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Good morning!

I have been on the road the last few days and really had very little sleep and time to prepare for this message so please forgive me if what I am about to say is incoherent, rambling, or jumbled.

I pray that the Holy Spirit teaches us all despite whatever I may or may not say.

Please turn in your Bibles or phone app to John 4

The main focus of today are verses 21-24 but we are really going to look at the first 45 verses.

John Chapter 4 is the famous account of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.

I believe verses 21-24 are the key central point to unlocking the meaning of these 45 verses.

Before we zero in on these verses I do think it’s important that we understand the context of the chapter.

In the first verse of chapter 4 we read that Jesus left Judea and headed toward Galilee after he learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making more disciples than John the Baptist.

This was not because he was afraid of what the Pharisees would do but rather more than likely because he knew that his hour had not yet come.

It was not time for him to take on the Pharisees.

The quickest way to get from Judea to Galilee was to go straight through Samaria which is why he stopped in the town of Sychar.

This equates to about about 30 miles from Jerusalem on foot.

Jesus, wearied from his journey sat by Jacob’s well.

His disciples had gone into town to buy food.

This is actually a picture of what is thought to be Jacob’s well.

John says it was about the sixth hour.

Some commentators think that this was at noon and some think that it was 6:00 PM.

It depends on if you use the Roman time tracking method or the Jewish time tracking method.

Either way, his disciples had gone into the village to buy food, and Jesus meets this Samaritan woman at the well.

We can conjecture that this woman was alone at the well because we don’t see any other people in the story and when the disciples return it is said that they marveled that Jesus was talking to a woman of Samaria with no mention of anyone else.

We read later that this woman has had been married to 5 different men in the village and was now living in sin with another man, so many commentators think she may have been trying to avoid meeting other women due to shame or guilt.

So she was probably alone.

Jesus says in Verse 7 “Give me a drink”.

This shocks her because in verse 9 we read

John 4:9

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.)

It is important that we understand that she is a Samaritan because we see Jesus revealing the gospel to one who would have been on the very lowest class of society in the eyes of the Jewish culture.

Jews and Samaritans did not mix and women were not treated well in general.

In addition to this, I think it is important to note that this account of the Samaritan woman follows Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisee Nicodemus in Chapter 3, who would have been considered one of the highest, and most respected people in social ranking people in the Jewish culture.

I encourage you to read both chapters 3 and 4 of John back-to-back because I believe John put these two accounts back to back for a reason.

It is incredible to see the main themes and similarities of how Jesus presents the gospel to two totally different people of opposing social ranks in that society.

And he does it using language that they would be able to relate to and understand.

The implication of these two accounts is that the gospel if for everyone.

After the woman asks Jesus how he could ask her to get water Jesus immediately says

Jesus does not really address her question but rather cuts straight to the heart of the matter.

There is no small talk.

My kind of guy.

This is because Jesus knew exactly who she was and that his interaction with her was part of His father’s work.

He was accomplishing something here with this woman for her sake, His disciple’s sake, the town’s sake, and even for our own sake because we are studying it 2000 years later.

Jesus steers the conversation away from the physical realm and opens her eyes to the spiritual world of the Kingdom of God.

She asks him how he can get water out of the well with nothing to draw water with.

The well is deep she said.

It is thought that Jacob’s well was about 100 feet deep.

In John 4:13-14 Jesus again does not really answer her question but says....

Then she said

It is important to see that she is still stuck in the physical realm at this point of the conversation.

She is so concerned with the physical aspect of getting water and loves the idea of not having to come to the well to draw water up out of this 100 foot well.

But then Jesus turns the conversation again ignoring her statement not to be rude but to drill down into her heart and we read:

Jesus, supernaturally knows that she has had five husbands and is now living in sin with another man.

Because she of this insight that Jesus has, she now is beginning to think in spiritual terms.

She begins to come to the conclusion that Jesus is a prophet.

This is very significant because the Samaritans only believed in the 5 books the Bible.

They did not adhere to or give credence to the prophets of the old testament.

And now we see her change the subject, either out of guilt and feeling uncomfortable about a man who told her everything she did wrong, or perhaps she started to believe in Jesus and legitimately wanted an answer to this question.

The Jews believed the place they should worship was in Jerusalem and the Samaritans believed it was on Mt.

Garizim.

I don’t have time to go into the history of this and the why but it is important to note that her heart is steered towards a question of worship.

It is as if Jesus has gotten to her core and she was now beginning to turn toward the spiritual plane.

This point of contention on where to worship was a huge debate and controversy.

It is thought that the temple on Mt.

Gerizim was destroyed about 100 years before this, so maybe she is really wanting to learn more about this and thinks Jesus can shed light on it.

And here is where we come to our key verses.

Jesus gets to the heart of the matter and reveals to her something she has never heard considered.

It is the gospel.

Because of the gospel, it does not matter who you are or where you worship.

The building does not matter but rather it is important that the worshiper now dwells in spirit and in truth.

This would have been such a massive shift in thought and thinking and one of hope.

It broke down the barrier between Jew, Samaritan or any other people group.

Jesus is saying that God is seeking anyone who will worship him in Spirit and in truth.

The criteria is not where they physically worshiped or where they were at in social standing.

It is now going to be to worship in spirit and truth.

To help us define being in the Spirit we can look to John 3.

John 3:5-6

Jesus is telling Nicodemus here in verse 6 that you have to be born of the Holy Spirit and once that happens you are of the spirit or in spirit.

And so with this understanding in mind, we can take a phrase like worship in spirit and truth and conclude that Jesus is saying true worshipers will be born again because they are born in the Spirit.

And the result of being in the spirit goes hand in hand with being in the truth.

It is amazing to read in John the connection between the Holy Spirit and truth which is fully revealed in Jesus and his words.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit reveals to us the truth of God’s word.

Our worship is to be guided by the Holy Spirit because it directs us towards God’s truth which in turn means our worship points to the truth of God.

Being in the truth goes deeper than simply knowing what is true, but it means that you are aware of what is real.

It is being aware of your surroundings and knowing the reality of your situation.

It has to do with the revelation of true reality.

I like how the Holman Illustrated Bible dictionary puts it regarding the word truth.

“Jesus is the true way leading to life, and men should not come to Him seeking truth but, because He is the end of the search, the revealed reality of God.”

The ultimate source of truth is the revealed reality of God.

And in the revelation of the reality of the Kingdom of God we see that we are called to live out our life in this world understanding the tension between the present and the future.

Worshiping in Spirit and Truth means that we are to be concerned with real things things that are spiritual and true.

And we are certainly given the example of this by Jesus in the concluding section of this passage.

We read this in John 4:28-35

I love to think how every word in our Bible is there for a reason and I find it fascinating that John thought it was important to note that the woman left her water jar.

It almost seems like she has gone from thinking of physical water only and now left in such a haste to tell others .

Physical water is the furthest thing from her mind.

And then the disciples return and now it is they who were thinking in terms of physical food.

This is why we really needed to look at all 45 verses in order to understand what jesus means by worshiping in Spirit and in truth.

In these 45 verses, There are at least 4 examples that Jesus uses to show us the spiritual world.

First the you have physical water compared to living water.

Second you have a physical place of worship compared to worshiping in Spirit