If you would now turn in your Bibles to John chapter four, and I have here John four verses one through 26, I will preface what we're about to read. And also here, I'm not going to go over all of John chapter four, one through 26. It's more of something to hopefully pique your interest a bit. And it is the Lord's Day, a great day to be in God's word. And it's more just a bit of an introduction, I suppose, give some background and some foreground as far as what we are about to read. And again, I'll just. mainly in my sermon cover just a little bit of the beginning of this, probably familiar to many of us. John chapter four, beginning at verse one, this is the living and active word of our Lord. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples. He left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but he needed to go through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of 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. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have well said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband, in that you spoke truly. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You must, or you worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. So far the reading, God's perfect word. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, diversity training is something that a lot of businesses promote these days, even require their employees to go through with the thought being that each employee should then know how to best interact with and or work together with all of the other employees, despite whatever differences they may have. Now, of course, Today, more than probably any other time in history, much of that supposed diversity training or the differences that companies train their employees about is nothing more than sin. And that's a topic for another day. I won't get into that right now. But let me say, when it comes to true diversity training, even the kind that promotes the best kind of breaking down barriers while still calling sin, sin, and uniting people from all sorts of different cultures and backgrounds as one, God wrote the book on that. You can't find a better diversity training than what we find in God's word. Even in the first few chapters of John's gospel, we're told of Jesus interacting with and also calling to be gathered together to himself a very diverse group of people. For instance, John the Baptist. He was in many ways weird. I mean, just, you know, I think if we could go back, we would think that's a weird guy out there eating locusts and wearing camel's hair and living in the desert. Those were not by any means the normal things in those days, right? Then two Jesus called lowly fishermen to himself. He called despised tax collectors to himself. He called other unlearned men to be his closest disciples. Jesus went to a wedding celebration. This is all before we get to John 4, as well as to a Passover feast where he no doubt interacted with a number of different people, both Jews and Gentiles. In chapter three, we read of Jesus having a conversation with Nicodemus, a ruler and teacher of the Jews, and therefore a very learned man. Well, now in chapter four, we read about his interactions with, of all people, a Samaritan woman. Men didn't have interactions like this with a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman. Again, that's all just up to John four. We know from reading later on in John's gospel, as well as the other gospels, that Jesus spoke with, that Jesus taught, that Jesus interacted with, that Jesus served, that Jesus lived beside, rebuked, loved, and even saved. A very diverse group of people, all while calling every one of them to repent and to believe the good news of salvation that comes only through him. Well, so again, we won't make it all through what we read just a minute ago this morning. But in what we will go over, I'm going to direct our attention to four different, although related, themes. I have those printed in your bulletin insert. The first one being looking back and also looking ahead, we see some stark contrasts as well as some vivid similarities between the individual that's talked about primarily in chapter three, and I know we didn't read that, but if you know John's gospel, chapter three, much of that is Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus, and now his interaction with this woman, without a name, just the woman of Samaria at the well. Second, we'll look at the Samaritans, what they were. Samaria, we'll discover a group of people that almost no other Jewish people at that time, but Jesus would have anything to do with. Third, we'll look at what were the reasons, perhaps the chief reason why Jesus left Judea. That's just something we might have just read over. What is he talking about? We read that, Jesus left Judea. Interesting thing that he would leave Judea at that time. We'll look at why he did that. And then lastly, we'll look to Jesus, the man, the God-man, the Savior that we all must have, or else we die in our sins. So first, in looking back to Nicodemus, and at the same time, looking ahead to the woman of Samaria, here's what we have. We have a man and a woman. Think about the culture in those days. That's a striking difference, right? a religious leader. How are the women of those days primarily taught? Through their husbands, right? It was the men that went to the synagogues. If nobody else could go, the men went to the feast and so forth. But we have a man having a very intimate conversation with Jesus and a woman. We have a Jew And we have a Gentile, actually a half-breed, Samaritan, half-Jew, half-Gentile, which as far as the Jews were concerned, that was worse than a full-blown Gentile. If you were a Gentile, you kind of couldn't help it. You just were a Gentile, you weren't a Jew. And I'll get to this in a little bit more, but they were compromised. These Samaritans, they compromised, made them all the less acceptable to God. We also have with Nicodemus a Pharisee, and so we have a very religious man, while the Samaritan woman was really of no religious affiliation, other than at best some sort of folk religion that the Samaritans practiced. We have in Nicodemus a scholar, and to some degree a politician, since the Pharisees had much to say about the civil laws back then. Voting time, right? And we're getting all the stuff in the mail and all the commercials and everything and who's your man and who's this? And some ways that would be similar to what Nicodemus was. It didn't vote for them per se, but. Well, with a woman, we have a person of no status, no education. Although she probably knew more about marriage and divorce than most people did. Being on her husband down the line a ways. We also have a man with a very well-known name, Nicodemus, but a woman with no name. What's her name? What was her name? Sue? Betty? Glenda? It never says. It's just this woman. This woman at the well, Samaritan. Besides all of that, we have a man of high moral standards. High moral standards. Pharisees were very moral. And we have a very immoral woman. We have a man who came seeking and we have a woman who was sought. We have a man who came at night to Jesus, perhaps to protect his reputation. Remember, we just heard him from Ecclesiastes. A good name is better than precious ointment. Nicodemus was to die. He wanted to be one that had a good reputation. We have a woman of no reputation other than a bad one. If she had died, what would people have said to her? Probably nobody would go to her funeral anyway, right? She came to Jesus, or at least she was there with Jesus at high noon. And so to be sure, those are some striking differences between those two individuals, but then they also had some very striking similarities. And so let's look at some of those. Both Nicodemus and the woman thought, believed that they were okay spiritually, but were not. Even like most folks today think they're okay spiritually, but they're not. Nicodemus thought he was okay spiritually because of his religious and intellectual achievements, The woman thought she was spiritually okay because of her Samaritan superstitions and traditions. We have two people who reacted to Jesus' spiritual words in a very naturalistic, earthly fashion. For example, when Nicodemus was told about the need to be born again, remember what he said? What, do I need to go back into my mother's womb? That's all he could say. He could just think naturally, right? Regarding the woman, when she was told about living water, she wondered where Jesus was hiding his ladle in his bucket so that she could have that same kind of water and never have to go back and take a physical drink of water again. So many times that's what we do, right? We say, well, we need to be literal interpreters of the scripture. Yes, that's right. We do need to be. But literally, there's many physical things that are meant to teach a spiritual reality. And so again, we have two people who were spiritually empty and thus two people who were also spiritually lost. In one sense, there could hardly be two people on more opposite ends of the spectrum, the cultural spectrum of their day, but at the same time, they were both just as lost, just as deserving of God's wrath as you and I or anyone else born of the first Adam ever was or is. I like how one commentator I read put it when he said, if Nicodemus is an example of the truth that no one can rise as high as to be above salvation. In other words, Nicodemus is, I mean, you know, you just have to, again, what we know of the Pharisees, very religious, very outwardly moral, right? Just so careful of what they did and didn't do. Not so high, he couldn't really truly be saved. And so the woman is an example that none can sink too low for as Christ not to be able to save. And I have to guess that God meant for us to see that and understand it by putting in his word these two examples, Nicodemus and the woman right next to each other. But so no one, regardless of sex, regardless of intellect, regardless of background, regardless of education, regardless of race or nationality or wealth or preferred sin type, there's a lot of different sins we prefer, right? Or any other such categories as a cause or a reason why God would keep his gospel hidden from them. And why? Because it's what every soul needs, the gospel to be delivered from sin and Satan himself. As we're told in John chapter one, Jesus came into the world, quote, and as many as received him, as many as received him, regardless of their differences, to them he gave the right or the privilege to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And so as Leon Morris put it, the rivalries and the hatreds that were meat and drink to the Jews of Jesus' day mattered not at all to him. His ministry was a ministry for all people. I'm sure you've all heard that phrase before. There's a lot being said today about racial tension and race relations and all of that. Scripture teaches one race, the human race, and anyone within that human race that God elects and brings to himself will be saved. Jesus is the Savior of the world. And it doesn't mean just the Savior of those that look like us and smell like us. A lot of different folks around the world that belong to Christ. Well, so moving on to our second area of emphasis then, which is looking at the Samaritans. The land or the region known as Samaria was just north of Judea. And its history more or less begins when Israel became divided into the northern tribes of Israel and the southern tribes of Judah. Around 720 BC, the Assyrians captured the northern tribes. They brought most of the people of Israel into exile, just like Babylon did later with Judah. But because Assyria didn't take everybody, they left some, they took most, they didn't take everybody, they left some people there. It's okay, you guys are so poor, you stay here, take care of a little bit of farming or whatever it was. Because they left some people in the land, and because the Assyrians then sent some of their own people into that same land, they soon began to intermarry. And then to have children that were therefore half Jewish, and half Assyrian or half Gentile. Along with that, the Jews that were left there still held to somewhat of a form of Jewish religion. It was corrupt, but they held to some form of it, while the Assyrians still held on to their pagan beliefs. And so what came out of that? Well, a messed up type of religion that was part Old Testament scripture and part heathen gods. Then after the exile, as the Jews were allowed to return to their land, most of them returning to the southern kingdom, when they came back, they were disgusted at what they found just to their northern border to Judea, again known as Samaria. We know from reading Ezra and Nehemiah, as well as other historical documents, that the bitterness and the animosity between those two groups of people only increased over time. and that in 400 BC, about the same time that the Jews were finishing the building of the temple in Jerusalem, the Samaritans were building their own temple. on Mount Gerizim, even claiming that that was where the original temple was. They should have, obviously it wasn't, but that's what they claimed. That particular Mount Gerizim temple lasted about 300 years before it was destroyed by a Judean ruler who hated the whole idea of a second false temple, where Jehovah's name was supposedly being worshiped and proclaimed. Also, when it came to the Samaritans' religion, More or less, they believed the Pentateuch. More or less, they believed Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But they rejected all the rest of the Old Testament. They rejected the prophets and the Psalms and so forth. Why would they reject those? Because those other books made it clear, Jerusalem was the place, right? Jerusalem was where God said, this is where you will build my temple, this is where I will be worshiped, and so forth. Plus, even in saying they believed the Pentateuch, they revised it, they kept the parts they liked, they got rid of the parts that they didn't like, and so forth. And so it was into that despised by the Jews place, and into the midst of those folks, that Jesus and his disciples went as they made their way from Judea to Galilee, even as we read in verses three and four. Now concerning verse three in particular, a question worth asking is why did Jesus live or leave Judea? Judea was the place the Jews were. And you may say, well, they go to Galilee. But you didn't have to go through Samaria to do that. Plus, still, Judea was the main place where they were. That's where God's covenant people resided at that time, the ones that Jesus came to save, the Jews. And you say, well, I thought Jesus came to save the Jews and the Gentiles. He did. But early on, he came as the Savior to the Jews, right? Remember Matthew 15? And the woman who has a demon-possessed daughter is crying out, Jesus, Jesus, heal my daughter. And Jesus is ignoring her, right? And he says, I came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And the woman says, yes, but even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master's table. And at that point, the Lord sees and blesses her with their great faith. So again, why leave Judea? In some ways, the most likely answer is what we're told in verse four, he needed to go through Samaria. And when it says he needed to, he needed to. If for no other reason so that we could have John chapter four. But although the case there could be made, and rightly so, that that's more in reference to Jesus going into Samaria, according to the will of God, than why he left Judea. Another possible reason, in light of verse one, is that Jesus left because he wanted to minimize the damage that he might do to John the Baptist's ministry. Again, you look back at verse one for that. Also in light of verse one, he might have left so as to hold back the negative impact that the Pharisees would have brought on his own ministry. But then there's also this reason, and that's that Jesus left Judea for much of the same reason why he left Jerusalem, which was to make a statement against the very religious and yet spiritless, truthless, unbelieving Jews. Look back at John chapter one. Look at John chapter one, verse six through 11, verses six through 11. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. Now couple that with chapter two, John two, verses 23 through 25. Verse 23, now when he, that is Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, had come into the world to Israel and had gone into the chief place of all Judaism and had performed miracles in their midst, but their response was simply to believe him for what he did, but not to believe him for who he was. All right, so with that in mind, we're gonna turn to a few different places here in Ezekiel. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter one, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. And I want to begin reading there at chapter one, verse four. But as I do remember that Ezekiel was a prophet at the same time as Jeremiah, give or take a few words. Jeremiah was prophesying to Judah primarily before and then also after they went into Babylonian captivity. While Ezekiel was prophesying as one who had already been taken captive himself. So keep that in mind as we look at, again, Ezekiel chapter one, verse four. Ezekiel's certainly one of those books that's not all that easy to understand. And you're gonna think, well, you're really gonna muddy the waters now. And I might, but anyway, Ezekiel 1 verse 4, then I looked and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself. And brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber out of the midst of the fire. Now look at verses 12 through 14. And each one, no, I'm sorry, that's not right. Look at verses 15 through 20. Now, as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with its four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of a barrel, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their working was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they moved, they went toward any one of four directions. They did not turn aside when they went. As for their rims, they were so high, they were awesome. And their rims were full of eyes all around the four of them. When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. And when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went. And the wheels were lifted together with them. for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Now look over at verse 26. And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne in appearance like a sapphire stone. On the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of his waist and upward, I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it. And from the appearance of his waist and downward, I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. I know I skipped a lot there, but you all perfectly understand that, right? You get it completely. I really don't need to explain anymore. Obviously, that can be a bit confusing, but what Ezekiel was speaking of there was a mighty vision of some sort with dazzling colors, with brightness, with fire and wheels and with wings that were all about it. all of the appearance of God's glory. It's amazing. Again, maybe we have these ideas in our mind, when I see the Lord and when I approach unto his glory, it's just gonna be pretty simple. I could probably draw it if you gave me a piece of paper and a pencil. I think what God is saying, it's beyond what you can really fully even understand or explain. There's a glory, there's a majesty, there's an awesomeness. This is like nothing else. And I think that's where Ezekiel was, and we see that oftentimes in the prophets. They're trying to explain something that's almost unexplainable. All of which then caused Ezekiel to fall on his face. Some people think, well, when I see the Lord, I'm gonna ask him, or I'm gonna, no, you're not. Your mouth will be shut, and you'll be on your face. Because it's God. All right, turn with me to chapter three of Ezekiel, and look at verses 12 through 14. Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice, blessed is the glory of the Lord from his place. I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them in a great thunderous noise. So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. It's not the easiest thing to pick up on, but what Ezekiel is describing is the throne of God and the glory of God that's with it, along with how it was departing, it was departing from its place. It was departing, the glory of the Lord was departing from the holy of holies in the temple. And that's what caused Ezekiel's bitterness. It would be like the Lord, if we came next Sunday and I said, just so you all know, the Lord is no longer with us. We'll go through the motions of worshiping. There will be no Lord. The spirit is gone. That would be a very bitter pill to take, right? But that's in a sense what Ezekiel's understanding. The Lord is, where he dwelt among his people, the Lord's leaving. He's departing from among the midst of his people, Israel. In the next few chapters, God reveals through Ezekiel his displeasure with his people and how he was fully aware of their temple worship, their sacrifices, their singing, and so on. It was all an abomination to his sight because they were just going through the motions. And that's why God had already raised up Babylon to do what they were doing and would continue to do. All right, now look over at chapter 10, verse four of Ezekiel. Chapter 10, verse four. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub and paused over the threshold of the temple. And the house was filled with the cloud and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory. At that point, the glory of the Lord hadn't completely departed yet, but it had moved from the holy of holies. It was standing on the threshold of the house of the Lord or the temple ready to leave. And so it's moving. That's the idea. Ezekiel's trying to present to the people, the Lord is moving. He's moving away. Maybe it's ever so slowly. And is anybody in Israel watching, or is anybody among God's called out ones caring about that? Evidently not. Turn with me, look over to chapter 11, verses 22 and 23. So the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the Lord of Israel was high above them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city. So now where had the glory of the Lord gone? It moved from the threshold of the temple, from the midst of the city, it's now upon a mountain on the east side of the city, which interestingly enough is the Mount of Olives, where Jesus wept over the city. and also at the base of which is the Garden of Gethsemane, as well as where Jesus was when he ascended into heaven. So with the glory of the Lord at the east side of the city of Jerusalem, again, does anybody care? No, they still don't care. They don't care. If they cared, they would have repented of their sin. And so eventually the glory of the Lord departs altogether. and it stayed away until it returns again as we read in chapter 43, and we're not gonna take the time to look at that chapter, but what we find in chapter 43 of Ezekiel is that when the glory of the Lord does return to his people in a new way, a restored relationship between them and God is now theirs, listen, through or by the means of perfect law keeping. We're not gonna take the time to read the rest of Ezekiel, obviously, but the Lord returns to his people through the means of perfect law keeping, perfect righteousness. Oh, I get it, Pastor. What you're saying is the Jews were just going through the motions, and so the Lord departed from the temple, and they went to Babylon. But then while they were in Babylon, they got their act together, and so, you know, like around that year 68, 69 or something, now they all started obeying God's law perfectly. So God looked down and said, okay, now you're good enough. Now I'll come back. No, that's not at all the case. But you said that God came back to his people based upon perfect law keeping. Yeah, he did. Through Jesus Christ. It's because God was preparing his people for Jesus Christ. by union and communion with him by faith. Now his people were becoming or getting closer to becoming the temples of God themselves, which is truly amazing that God who had departed from a very religious and yet holy spiritless people would then return and would return even to us, to Gentiles. Praise the Lord for his covenant faithfulness for the gift of the Holy Spirit. But so why did Jesus leave Judea? I have to think at least in part of the reason was that he left in order to make it known to the people of Judea at that time that he was the light of the world. He was the one. Did the Jews know Ezekiel? They knew Ezekiel. Did the Pharisees know Ezekiel? They knew Ezekiel. A lot of the Pharisees could probably quote all of Ezekiel. If you ever read through Ezekiel, you gotta be kidding me. Maybe I could probably quote Psalm 23, Psalm 19. Ezekiel, the whole book of Ezekiel? Yeah, the whole book of Ezekiel, they could quote it. What was it pointing to? To God coming back to his people based upon perfect righteousness. The glory would return based upon perfect righteousness. Jesus is leaving Judea, right? God, the Son, is leaving Judea. And he's proving a lot of things in doing that, simple little thing. And he's doing that even as he comes to Gentiles, the Samaritan woman. It's in many ways a precursor to what we read in Acts 13, where the apostle told the Jews that it was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to them, but since they in general rejected it, it was then turning from them and would instead be primarily to the Gentiles. Well, so very briefly then, our fourth point is looking at Jesus the man. In John 4, 5, and 6, we read that Jesus came to the city of Samaria called Sychar. And after stopping at the city watering hole, he was weary from his journey. He took a seat. He rested by the well. But listen, in those few simple words, we are reminded that Jesus was what? A man. Who gets tired after walking a long time? Men do. Who get thirsty? Who need water, physical water, after they've journeyed a long time? Men do. Again, we just read that he was weary from his journey and so he took a seat by the well. Because he's a human being, because he's a man. And you know what? That's exactly what we all need. A man, a human, a human being, because that's what we are. That's what the woman at the well needed. That's what Nicodemus needed. That's what Jesus' disciples needed. That's what every sinful human being needs. We need someone like us and yet very unlike us to take our place. If you still have, your Bible's open to John chapter four. We didn't quite get there, but don't you love verse 29? John four, verse 29. Come see a man. The woman going to her city, come see a man who told me all the things I ever did. Could this be the Christ? Yes. Yes, that could be the Christ. It was indeed the Christ. What a wonderful thought and reality to know that not only that Jesus is a man who can certainly sympathize with our weaknesses, but he also was and is the God-man who was sent not to condemn the world, but to save the world, and in closing, like I said at the outset, God wrote the book on diversity training in the sense that whoever you are, whoever someone else is, we'll meet people throughout our week, probably meet somebody this week, we'll drive by them, maybe downtown, or we'll come up to a stop sign and there'll be somebody holding a sign, give me whatever, I've never seen a sign, give me whatever. It's to say like, whatever you give helps or that type of thing. Some will look moral, some who will look immoral. We'll see men, we'll see women, we'll see young, we'll see old, we'll see black and brown and white and whatever color of skin it may be. And God's word of truth teaches us that if you're a human being, then you're made in God's image. And what you need to do is repent and believe and trust in the God man. And we know that. And so may we be ready to give the opportunity by God to share that information, more than just information, to present a good word. May the Holy Spirit living in us give us those opportunities to God's glory. Amen.