Why We... Testify (John 4:1-42)

Introduction

Currently, we are going through a sermon series entitled Why We… We are looking at different aspects of church life and asking the question: “Why do we do this?” Why do we preach? Why do we sing? Why do we give?

Today, I have the privilege of walking you through a unique facet of Church ministry. Today, we’re going to ask the question: Why do we testify?

Now, you might be asking what I even mean by “Testify.” Are we testifying in court? Are we giving a prophetic word? Are we simply talking about someone’s subjective emotional experience with the Gospel?

At Soteria, we testify in a number of different ways. If you have been through the membership process, you know that we ask you to write out your personal “Testimony” before you become a member. In short, what we are asking is, “How did Christ grab a hold of your heart?” We want to know your “Story of Salvation.” That’s all your testimony is—your story of salvation. When did you understand your need for Jesus? What did you place your trust in for your salvation? How did the Gospel of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection change your life. That’s all a testimony is.

We ask our church members to write out their personal testimony—their story of salvation. Another way we testify is in our growth groups. During the first couple meetings of a growth group, people often share their “testimonies” with each other. As the growth group continues and people grow together, the testimony continues as people encourage one another through how the Gospel is continuing to transform them in their walk with Christ.

We testify in the songs we sing on Sunday morning.

This morning we sang of the Great Things God has done for us: “He conquers the grave, frees every captive, and breaks every chain. He’s been faithful through every storm and he’ll be faithful forevermore.”

We sang of the 10,000 reasons we have to bless the Lord.

We sang that it is not by anything we have done, but only through Christ in us. “No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future sure, the price it has been paid. For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon, and He was raised to overthrow the throw. To this I hold: My sin has been defeated. Jesus now and ever is my plea! Oh, the chains are released! I can sing, ‘I am free!’ Yet not I, but through Christ in me.”

Once again, we just sang of the Greatness of God. “I was blinded by my sin, had no ears to hear your voice, Did not know your love within, had no taste for heaven’s joys. Then your Spirit gave me life, opened up your word to me! Through the Gospel of your son, gave me endless hope and peace.

So Why do we testify? Testimony permeates the ministry at Soteria. It is woven through every aspect. But why do we do it?

This morning, we are going to be in John 4. In this passage, we see the testimony of a woman whose life was ridden with sin, shame, and suffering. Then Jesus stepped in (as he does with all of us) and saved her. One day, at a well, Jesus initiated a conversation with a dejected and rejected outcast of a woman. When she understood who Jesus was, she responded in this way. John 4:28-29 say, “Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?’” In John 4:39 we see the response of the people: “Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’”

And that is where we find the big idea of today’s sermon:

We testify because it points people to Jesus.

Whether we testify to other Christians at Church or to unbelievers in the marketplace, the reason we testify is because it points people to Jesus.

But how do we get there? John 4 gives us the answer. Let’s jump into John 4 and how the woman at the well turned into a testifier. What happened to her? Why did she testify? Why do we testify?

Reasons Why We Testify

We Testify Because… Jesus Came for Us (John 4:1-9)

The passage begins by setting the scene. Jesus, because of the Pharisees, left the southern region of Judea and went to the the northern region of Galilee. Interestingly, though, the passage says, in verse four,

John 4:4 CSB

He had to travel through Samaria;

Now why is that important? Well, it goes back to about 750 years prior to Jesus. The nation of Israel was split in two between the northern kingdom of Isreal and the southern kingdom of Judah. Because Israel was wicked and idolatrous, God brought the nation of Assyria to take them captive. In 722 BC, Assyria stormed the northern kingdom and occupied the land. During that time, many Jews were relocated to Assyria. These Jews ended up intermarrying with the Assyrians. Eventually the people came back to the land and settled in the region of Samaria, where Jesus was passing through now.

The Jews, however, were prejudiced toward the Samaritans because they weren’t “pure blood Jews.” There was racial animosity between the peoples. As such, the Jews, if they were traveling from Judea to Galilee, they would rather travel around the region than go through Samaria.

ILLUSTRATION: Driving around Minnesota to get to Canada. Best part of Minnesota is I-35 South.

But in John 4:4, we read that Jesus had to travel through Samaria. Why did Jesus have to? Well, this one verse shows us that Jesus was going to Samaria for a very particular reason. He had to go because he had a divine appointment with this Samaritan woman and the town she lived in. Jesus went through Samaria because he wanted to save these people.

And this is one of the reasons we testify. We Testify Because… Jesus Came for Us. If Jesus had not come for us, we would not be saved. Left to our own devices, we only deserve judgment, but Jesus humbled himself to the point of death on a cross so that he might save us. Praise God that he came. We Testify Because… Jesus Came for Us.

As he and the disciples traveled through Samaria, they came to the town of Sychar which had a well that was dug by Jacob, the first Israelite. After the long journey, Jesus sat down by the well tired, hungry, and thirsty. He and the disciples had been traveling since dawn and were about to take their lunch break.

After sending the disciples into town for food, Jesus sat at the well and waited. Then, in verse 7, the woman Jesus had an appointment with arrived. Verse 7-8 read,

John 4:7–8 CSB

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

The woman was astounded that Jesus spoke to her. After all, Jews don’t associate with Samaritans. And, in this culture, women were treated as property and were not valued as they should be. Oftentimes, men wouldn’t even speak with their wives in public because it was “shameful.” But what does Jesus do? He initiates conversation with her even though it was socially unacceptable. He says, “Give me a drink.”

The woman responds in verse 9.

John 4:9 CSB

“How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Jesus responds, by declaring the glories of the Gospel to her.

We Testify Because… Jesus Saves Us (John 4:10-30)

And in this next set of verses, we learn that we testify because Jesus saves us.

Jesus responds to the woman’s question, by not answering her question. Instead, he answers,

John 4:10 CSB

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”

Now what in the world did Jesus mean by “living water”? What’s he getting at here? The phrase is undoubtedly a reference to an Old Testament metaphor. The most clear example of this is in Ezekiel 36:25-27.

Ezekiel 36:25–27 CSB

I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.

When Jesus says in this chapter that he will give the Samaritan woman living water, he is referring to the satisfying eternal life that Jesus, the Savior of the world, provides through his Holy Spirit.

This is seen more clearly as the woman responds in verses 11-12. Rather than understanding what Jesus said, the woman misunderstood and doubted the words of Jesus.

John 4:11–12 CSB

“Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

The woman thought that Jesus was a charlatan. “There’s no way he can do what he claims! Even Jacob couldn’t do this. He had to go and dig this deep well to get water! Does this guy think he’s better than Jacob?” The woman didn’t know who he was . But Jesus was persistent. He insists on letting her know who he is. In verse 13, we see his response.

John 4:13–14 CSB

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

Jesus goes a step further. “Not only can I give you living water,” he says. “This water can completely satisfy you and will ultimately overflow into giving you eternal life.” Still skeptical, the woman is probably a little sarcastic when she says in verse fifteen:

John 4:15 CSB

“Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

Well, Jesus, if you can do this, give me the water! Give me this water that will fully quench my thirst and give me eternal life!

ILLUSTRATION: Phone Call Scams /// Scamming Chiropractor

Jesus, however, wasn’t referring to physical thirst. His focus was on the thirst of her soul. And he addresses it directly. Being the all-knowing Son of God, Jesus hones in on what makes her an outcast, a social pariah. Verse 16...

John 4:16–18 CSB

“Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

Even in today’s day and age with sexual libertinism and no fault divorce, this number is staggering. This woman had married five different men and had been divorced by each one of them (since women were not legally permitted to divorce their husbands). Now, she wasn’t even married to the guy she was with.

What are your thoughts when you first hear this? If we’re honest, most of us probably think that she’s a whore, a sinner, and an undesirable person. And if we’re even more honest, we would try to avoid her. She’s part of a group of people that we want to avoid, and even her own people reject her. We would rather put up our white picket fence rather than pursue a woman like this.

It’s a good thing Jesus isn’t like us.

Jesus sees through the veneer of her sinfulness and sees a soul that is desperately seeking satisfaction and fulfillment. Her soul is thirsty. Her soul is dry and barren.

Jesus didn’t try to overlook or cover-up her sin. No. He calls it out for it is. But he also recognizes the suffering that this woman has been through. She, like most girls, probably grew up dreaming about her wedding day. She maybe played dress up and played “house.” She probably had her wedding planned by the time she was ten years old. And then that day finally arrived.

“Now, I’ll finally be happy. Now, I’ll finally be satisfied.”

Instead, she’s kicked to the curb and divorced. Then she comes to the next guy. “Maybe he’ll be the one!” Disappointment again.

Guy number three comes along and does the same thing. Guy number four… Guy number five...

Now, she’s been divorced five times and nobody wants her. As a woman in this culture, she couldn’t earn a living on her own and was homeless. Another guy comes along and decides to take advantage of her. He says, “I’m not going to marry you. But, if you sleep with me, I’ll give you a roof over your head and feed you.”

“Well,” the woman says, “that’s better than being out on the streets to starve.” So she consents.

Praise God that Jesus didn’t condemn this woman like everyone else was. Because that is the state of every one of us. We are all thirsty. We all have souls that are dry.

We seek to fulfill our souls with money. But it will never satisfy. We pursue satisfaction through sex, but it cannot fulfill us. We pursue power and promotion, respect and recognition. None of them can quench the thirst of our souls though.

And what’s worse is that we try to hide our sin. We don’t want anyone to know. The same is true of the woman. When Jesus clearly pinpoints the thirst of her soul, she is ashamed. What Jesus knew is that, in order for the woman, in order for us to receive the living water that Jesus provides, we need to come face to face with our sin and the condition of our souls.

But we don’t want to hear that. We are ashamed when we think on these things. Just as we would, the woman tries to change the subject.

In verse 19 we read,

John 4:19–20 CSB

“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

The Samaritans built a rival temple to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The woman tries to get Jesus to debate with her on an abstract theological topic rather than the state of her soul. Jesus doesn’t give in though.

He responds diplomatically in verse 21.

John 4:21–24 CSB

Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”

Rather than debating, Jesus says that the temple is about to done away with. People will no longer need to offer sacrifices and worship in a particular place. No. Instead, those who worship God will worship in Spirit because God will give them his Spirit (the living water) and will lead them into the truth.

At this point, the woman begins to understand. She knows that the Messiah is promised. She knows that when comes, everything will make sense. You can see her wheels begin to turn. Verse 25 reads,

John 4:25 CSB

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Let’s look at the woman’s thought progression. At first, she is skeptical of this guy. “He’s a charlatan who thinks he’s better than our father Jacob!” Then, she says, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” Now, she’s thinking to herself, “Could this be the Messiah? Could this be the promised Savior of the world? Could this be him?”

Finally, Jesus brings his plan to fruition. John 4:26 reads,

John 4:26 CSB

Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

Immediately, the lights came on. The woman believed that Jesus was the only way to be saved. And what was her response?

Verses 27-29 read,

John 4:27–30 CSB

Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They left the town and made their way to him.

As soon as she was saved, the woman was changed. First, the woman had come to the well to draw water, but she abandoned her water jar out of the joy she had in knowing Christ. Second, she rushed back into town and began to tell everyone she could about Jesus–this man who knew everything she had ever done. Earlier, she came to the well alone as a social outcast. Third, because she believed Jesus to know everything, she asked others to consider the truth of the Messiah. “Could this be the Messiah?”

We Testify Because Jesus Is Still Saving (John 4:31-42)

We glossed over it, but in verse 27, John sets up a striking contrast between the woman and the disciples. Between this social outcast and those chosen to follow Jesus. Between this “outsider” and the “insiders.”

Likely knowing that they would be rebuked for their prejudices toward this sinful Samaritan woman, the Jewish disciples kept silent about her and began to prepare the food that they just got from the local Hy-Vee.

After getting it ready, Jesus sits there not eating. That would be another contrast between Jesus and me.

In verse 31, we see what happened before the townspeople got to the well.

John 4:31–38 CSB

In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them. “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”

Finally, from these verses, we see that We Testify because Jesus is Still Saving.

Jesus says, “Don’t wait for the harvest. The harvest is already here! Get out into the fields and start reaping.”

In other words, “I’m saving people. There are people that have come before you and have prepared the way for people to trust in me–the Savior. So get out there and start testifying about my coming. Testify about me to this lost and desperate world. You might lead some to Christ, you might plant a seed. Either way, I am saving people through it.”

What Jesus does here is amazing. Jesus simultaneously commissions the disciple to actively testify about his coming while also relieving them of any pressure to do it in their own strength.

Those who testify about Christ are not responsible for converting people; their task is to simply tell the truth about what they know, tell the truth of Jesus saving work.

Conclusion

So why do we testify at Soteria? We testify because Jesus came for us, saved us, and is still saving people.

In the last couple of verses, we see what our testifying does.

John 4:39–42 CSB

Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of what he said. And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

Why do we testify?

BIG IDEA: We Testify Because… It Points People to Jesus (John 4:39-42)

These verses clearly state that were people many who believed in Jesus because the woman testified about him. That belief, however, made them want Jesus. John stresses the fact that their believing moved beyond a simple trust in another human. Instead, the story emphasizes a believing based on Christ himself. In verse 42,

John 4:42 CSB

And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

We never testify as an end in itself. Our testimony is a conduit to Christ. We sing about the glories of Christ so that we might know more of Christ. We testify about how Christ saved us so that others might come to know Christ. We testify because our testimony points people to Jesus. He is the end of our testimony because He is our testimony.

Jesus pursued us. Jesus saved us. Jesus is still saving people. And Jesus commissions us to testify of what he’s done in us so that others might see him more clearly.

My Testimony

Emphasize the role of the church in saving me. So many people poured into me. So many people made