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Well, speaking of the word tonight,
if you will turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter four,
we're gonna be looking at just six verses, John four verses
25 through 30. We're in the middle of this encounter
that Jesus has with the Samaritan woman. And you perhaps noticed
it in my prayer and it's on my mind because it's going to be
a major theme of my teaching the gospel of John over the next
week is this theme verse or purpose statement that the Apostle John
wrote at the end of his book in chapter 20 when he says these
things are written in other words these things in this gospel are
written that you might know that Jesus is the Christ the Son of
God and that by believing you might have life in his name.
And so with that in mind we come to this chapter where Jesus is
encountering this woman at the well in the place called Samaria. And of course, you cannot get
any more blatant about Jesus being the Christ than in this
passage that we're going to read tonight. And it is given to someone
considered on the lowest strata of society. In their society,
Jewish rabbis were not expected to ever speak to a woman. in public. It was just not done.
Not only that, but we looked last week at how Samaritans were
certainly not beloved by the Jews. In fact, a rabbi would
usually, in this case, go completely around the territory of Samaria
just to avoid encountering Samaritans. And so here he is at this well
speaking to a woman, shocking development, We've already seen
how she has looked at him and interacted with him, and we'll
get a little bit into that again tonight, but we pick it up at
verse 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. Jesus said to her, I who speak
to you am he. 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?
So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said
to the people, come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? They
went out of the town and were coming to him. As we consider
this short passage, let us turn briefly to the Lord in prayer. May you guide our ears to hear
your word by your spirit. May you give us hearts to understand
your word. May we apply it by that same
spirit to our lives. That we might be teachable, we
might learn, and we might grow with you. And Father, we pray
that anything said, done, or thought here that is inconsistent
with your word shall pass away, never to be heard from again.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, imagine the joy of the
gospel when you have heard it for the first time and you have
believed those words. The joy of the gospel is all
through the New Testament. In fact, earlier in this book
of John in chapter three, Jesus had the opportunity to share
the gospel, the pure gospel of faith in Jesus Christ with the
Pharisee, Nicodemus. Now, we don't know whether Nicodemus
came to faith We tend to think that perhaps he did because we
encounter him again at the very end of the book at Jesus' crucifixion. Here was Jesus telling someone
who knew all about the law. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He
knew everything about the Old Testament, particularly the first
five books of the Bible, which he likely had memorized. And
so he was someone who knew all these things of the Old Testament,
and Jesus had the privilege of sharing with him the gospel. And of course, part of this was
John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life. And hopefully, Nicodemus received
the joy of salvation. Later on in the book of Acts,
Philip the Evangelist, one of the early deacons in the early
church, He had the privilege of being sent by the spirit to
a chariot where an Ethiopian eunuch was riding down in this
chariot while reading the book of Isaiah. And this man turned
to Philip and he said, can you help me understand these words?
And here, Philip had the great opportunity to share the gospel
of Jesus Christ, showing that Jesus was the Christ from the
book of Isaiah. to the Ethiopian eunuch. And here in this chapter, Jesus
encounters someone very different. This was a Samaritan woman, again,
an outcast because the Jewish people did not accept the Samaritans
in their religion. She also seemed to be an outcast
because here she had In this circumstance, she was going to
this well in the heat of the day when the other women would
not be around, when she was alone because of her unethical or immoral
reputation. She was an outcast in society,
and so here she was, perhaps the lowest of the low, and Jesus
has the opportunity to share with her the core truth of the
gospel. that he is the Messiah or the
Christ. And of course, this woman, like
the other Samaritans, they actually only accepted the first five
books of the Bible. They threw out the prophets.
They threw out the history books of the Old Testament. And of
course, at this point, the New Testament wasn't written yet.
And so here, even to those with no true scriptural knowledge,
at least of all of its content, Jesus had the opportunity to
share the gospel with. And so here is the situation.
We're going to look, first of all, at the Samaritan woman's
pondering. Secondly, we're going to look
at the Messiah's clear claim. And finally, we'll look at the
Samaritan woman's evangelism when she came to faith. First
of all, the Samaritan woman's pondering. Just to get a refresher
a little bit about this conversation. Jesus encountered her at this
well. His disciples had gone into town to get some supplies.
And so here he was, this woman was coming to the well, and he
engaged her in conversation. And her first response in verse
nine is this. How is it that you, speaking
to Jesus, of course, a Jew, asked for a drink from me, a woman
of Samaria? For Jews have no associations
or dealings with Samaritans. This was a reminder that she
understood the circumstances. She knew somehow, we don't know
exactly whether it was dress or custom or his dialect or what
it might have been, but she recognized immediately he was Jewish. And
so her first response to him is that this is a shockingly
crazy Jew. He is someone who is doing absolutely
beyond what tradition would expect. He's not only talking to a Samaritan,
he's talking to this Samaritan woman. And then as they engage
in this conversation, he begins to talk about the well and about
living water and about how if she knew who he was, she would
ask him for living water. And so by verse 12, here is her
next response. Are you greater than our father
Jacob? He gave us the well and drank
from it himself as did his sons and his livestock because she
only Like the other Samaritans that accepted the first five
books of the Bible, rejected everything else, the most important
historical figures in their religious tradition would have been individuals
like the patriarchs and like Moses and so forth. And so here,
how could this man, by claiming to have living water, some kind
of water that was better than the water you could get from
this well, which was dug by Jacob, a couple thousand years previously,
how could this arrogant Jew really be better than Jacob? So she
goes from thinking he's a shockingly crazy Jew to thinking that he's
an arrogant Jew, even perhaps placing himself on a level above
the patriarch, Jacob, the man by which Israel was named. And so they continue the conversation.
He talks about this water that if you get this water from him,
it will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life. And
then verse 15 reveals to us that by this time she finds that he's
an intriguing man. She says, sir, give me this water
that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. In other words, she desires what
he has to offer and here she begins to change her perception
of him. And of course, we know the shocking
thing that happens next. Jesus tells her to call her husband.
She answers and says, I have no husband. And then he reveals
to her the knowledge he has. Remember, they're complete strangers
up to this point. And he says to her, you are right
in saying, I have no husband for you have had five husbands
and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said
is true. So what is the next thing the
woman ponders about this man? First of all, she thinks he's
crazy. Secondly, she thinks he's arrogant. Thirdly, she finds
a desirable thing that he has to offer. She's intrigued by
him. Now she looks at that and she wonders how in the world
he could possibly know all those things about her. And she says,
I see that you are a prophet. This is perhaps one of the highest
commendations she could have given anyone. at this point is
to say that someone was a prophet. She's indicating that this knowledge
she has of the intimate details of her life could not be acquired
anywhere else but by divine revelation. And so she says you are a prophet
in verse 19. And then they have this discussion
because she doesn't want she wants to change the topic. She
don't want to talk about her sin and her immoral history and
all the problems that she's had and so they've turned to it.
She begins asking questions about worship and the great debate
between the Samaritans and the Jews and so forth. Verse 24,
we were reminded in 23 and 24, Jesus says, true worshipers will
worship the father in spirit and in truth. Verse 24, God is
spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and
truth. And so then you think, well,
this might be the end of the conversation. And the woman says
to him, again, kind of leading to another topic, I know that
Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ. When
he comes, he will tell us all things. Here, you kind of get
where she's pondering now. After he revealed that the intimate
knowledge of her life and her sin and her background, and then
when he had such wonderful answers to this debate about whether
the Samaritans or the Jews were right in their worship practices,
she begins to ponder maybe this person is more than a prophet,
and so she tests the waters a little bit, and she says, could this
be something more? I know Messiah, why is she thinking
about Messiah? Because she sees something in
Jesus that seems to be even more than a prophet. And here's her
knowledge of the Messiah. What is her knowledge? Remember,
she's a Samaritan. The Samaritans reject the psalms
they wouldn't have had or they wouldn't have taught. Psalm 2
being a messianic psalm pointing to Jesus. They wouldn't have
had the teaching about David and the line of David and the
historical books which point to the fact that Jesus promised
someone from the line of David would be on the throne forever.
They didn't have that. They only had the vague and unclear
messianic portions of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. But somehow she was still taught,
Messiah is coming. She recognized that there was
a Savior coming. Perhaps she heard those words
about the star coming or the scepter coming out of Judah and
the star and all of those vague and unclear references about
a Messiah to come. But somehow she recognized as
a Samaritan with these first five books of the Bible that
a Messiah was coming, a Christ, a Savior. She also recognized
this. The Messiah will announce to
us all things. Now, where does she get that?
In fact, the only place we can really kind of clearly understand
that is in Deuteronomy 18, verses 18 and 19, where Moses said to
the people, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from
among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and
he shall speak to them all that I command him. and whoever will
not listen to my words, that he shall speak in my name, I
myself will require it of him." In other words, there was someone
coming who was like Moses in that he was a prophet, he would
do amazing things, he would be a spokesperson for God himself,
and yet that person demanded obedience. God through Moses
inspired him to write these words that everyone must obey him. And so likely these are some
of the teachings that they would have had amongst the Samaritans
to suggest that a Christ is coming. And so this woman is pondering
is this man perhaps that Messiah or that Christ? I have to say
everyone who ponders one thing or another It may be that we
might have a cursory knowledge of a subject. I found myself
at a theatrical performance here a couple weeks ago with one of
Xander's friends that was in this theatrical performance and
I began to remember my days as a theater minor in college. And
as I watched the show, I was wondering about the choreography
and the scenery and all of the costuming and all of those things. And I began to think about those
interactions I had in theater, engaged in those things, even
remembering those days, I probably couldn't do it now, remembering
how to put stage makeup on my face and all of those things.
I thought, you know, if I were to go and I would try to give
advice to that theatrical ensemble, of what they should do or how
they should do it. I just had a cursory knowledge
now. In fact some of the ways in which they do stage construction
are very different. Back when I was in college we
didn't have a part of the set being a digital screen doing
different animations or different pictures or things that are in
the back. The lights aren't all now not things you have to go
adjust and all those things now it's all a digital and that kind
of thing. So I have some knowledge but
if I were to go there and share all those things that I knew
it wouldn't be enough would it? You see we all see dimly. before we come to faith in Jesus
Christ. We have some knowledge. We have
some things we know are true or some things we take to be
true. But especially with those who only have a general knowledge,
who do not have the specific knowledge of the scriptures,
that the scriptures reveal that Jesus is the Christ, that in
Christ alone is salvation. Unless we have these things,
then we will just be simply pondering who Jesus might be. Was he a
good man? Was he someone that was an example
for others? Is he someone that was a good
teacher, perhaps, or all of those things? But here is Jesus' response. Jesus said to her, I who speak
to you, am he. You see, this is the Messiah's
clear claim. He says, and this is a literal
translation from the Greek, the I is emphasized, In fact, when
you use that verb of being, that statement, I am, it's implied,
this word I is implied, but the word ego or I is also included
in this passage. And so it says, I, I am the one
speaking to you. You see, Jesus here first is
claiming to be the Christ. When she said, I know that Messiah
is coming, and he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her,
I, the one speaking to you, I am. Our ESV translation here supplies
the word he here to remind us that he's referring to himself.
Jesus is claiming to be the Christ or the Messiah. And this is a
no doubt claim. And the most interesting thing
that all the people he could have revealed this to, even his
disciples, he chooses the Samaritan woman. This is according to the
gospels, at least the record we have. Of course, we don't
have all of the words that Jesus spoke in his ministry, but in
recording, in the recording of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, this is the only public claim of Jesus before
his trial to be the Christ. And he does
it to the Samaritan woman, an unnamed individual who seems
to be on the lowest strata of society. But Jesus not only claims
to be the Messiah, he also claims the divine name. You notice those
words, perhaps. I am. If you remember your Old
Testament history, you know that when Moses was at the burning
bush and he asked God, as God was trying to send him off to
Egypt to be the instrument of God's rescue of the Israelite
people from Egypt. He said, well, who should I say
is sending me? And God said to him, his name,
tell them that I am, or Jehovah has sent you. And he revealed
his name, the divine name of God, which is the verb of being,
I am. In other words, it stresses particularly
that he has an unending a time period of existence. There is
no beginning. There is no end. He always exists. He always is. And so here Jesus
claims the divine name. He says I am the one speaking
to you. Me. And it's safe to do this
in Samaria. Because the Samaritans don't
have as full an understanding of the scriptures. and they're
outcasts from the courts in Jerusalem. And yet we know that when Jesus
makes this claim in other places, it is unsafe among the Jews. In chapter eight, verse 58, he
says, before Abraham was, I am. And you know what the Jewish
people did? They picked up stones to stone
him because they recognized he was claiming the divine name
and being of God. In chapter 10 verse 30, when
he makes this statement, I and the father are one, what is the
response? The Jews pick up the stones to
try and stone him because they recognize he's claiming to be
God himself. But here with the Samaritan woman,
He makes this claim, I am. And yet, the Samaritan woman
is revealed an eternal truth about Jesus, our Savior. Now,
of course, the disciples, verse 27, come back. It seems to be
that perhaps they came back right after he made this statement.
They don't seem to necessarily engage in this particular truth
at this particular time. Again, what happened? They marveled
that he was talking with a woman. Of course, the tradition of the
rabbis was such that they would never talk to a woman in public. It was considered uncouth and
damaging to their reputation that they might even have considered,
especially in this case, Jesus having been alone with a woman
there while they were coming back from town. And yet notice
this. They recognize his authority.
They don't ask the woman, what do you see? And they don't ask
Jesus, why are you talking with her? This is because they have
truly understood that as his disciples, as he is their rabbi,
and as they have experienced the experiences of Jesus up to
this point, they are in submission to him. But think about these traditions. Tradition of the rabbi here not
to speak with a woman. the tradition that some share
about other things. I remember growing up, we would
always visit, every year when we lived in Iowa, we would visit
my grandmother in Pennsylvania. But we would always stop by in
Ohio to visit my great Aunt Helen. And my great Aunt Helen grew
up in a more fundamentalist situation when some of the Presbyterian
churches had many more rules than we have today, necessarily.
And I remember my father and others were taught when they
were growing up, you're not supposed to go to movies, you're not supposed
to do a lot of different things, and you're not supposed to play
with cards. In fact, evidently the idea was
that playing cards with the king and the queen and the jack, the
face cards, they considered to be evil for one reason or another. And so when we went to my great
aunt Helen's house, then she would get out her other cards.
She didn't have the cards, the regular pack of cards with all
the face cards. She had ones with just numbers
on them. And we would play what was called flinch or muggins.
And we would play those games because they were considered
not evil. She even had a card shuffler because she didn't want
to shuffle the cards. And I thought that was fascinating
as a boy. But the tradition was, You couldn't do the other things
because they considered them evil. And yet here, even those
raised in the household of God may inadvertently have had improper
knowledge or tradition. That in this case, Jesus, the
Christ, is breaking that tradition, not because he wants to be considered
someone with a damaged reputation, or not because he just does it
for the sake of doing it, but because he has a greater purpose
and he understands that this woman needs the gospel more than
he needs those who would say it's so bad to talk to a woman
in public. And so here it is, he shares
with her this core truth about himself that no one else is going
to receive in his ministry as recorded in the gospels. He says,
I am the Messiah. And so what does she do? Remember,
she thought he was crazy. She thought he was arrogant.
She thought he may have had an intriguing offer. Then she realized
he was at least a prophet. Then she introduced the topic
of the Messiah. Here he now says, I am the Messiah. So what does she do? She left
her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,
come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be
the Christ? You see, She immediately wanted
to tell others about Jesus. When she understood he was the
Messiah, she believed it. In fact she was so joyful about
having found this Messiah she forgot her being an outcast and
she had this urgency to tell others so much so she left her
water jar at the well. Now perhaps that's because she
intended to come back but perhaps it's also because this was such
important news that she forgot all about her reason for being
there to begin with. All she could think about was
telling somebody else. and think about the simplicity
of the message. Again, she didn't have a perfect
knowledge of the history of God's work with his people. She didn't
know, especially the scriptures from Joshua through Malachi.
She didn't know those. She wasn't familiar with all
those things. She wasn't a theologian. She
wasn't a called leader, a teacher amongst the people. All she did
in the simplicity of her message is first of all, she says basically,
Come see this omniscient man or this man that knows everything.
He says see a man who told me all that I ever did. You know
this is this is the basic knowledge she has about him. He's claiming
to be the Messiah and she understands that he at least has the power
of God to know her innermost secrets. And so she just shares
the incomplete knowledge that she has. And then she asked them
a question. Is this one not the Christ? In
our English translation, it says here, can this be the Christ?
But the literal sense here is, is this one not the Christ? In other words, she's inviting
them to say, I believe he's the Christ, but maybe you can go
and prove me wrong. So she has this evangelistic
fervor of urgency and yet simplicity. And it's basically this. Come
and see for yourselves. She inspired others to see for
themselves. You see, I think this is so often
the best evangelism is when just an everyday person who comes
to a knowledge of saving grace, who knows that their sins are
forgiven in Christ, who knows that in him because of their
faith in him, they have eternal life. They may not have all the
theology straight. They may not have all the details
about how the Christ is proven from the Old Testament to be
Jesus. They might not know all those things. They simply say,
come and see. You know, one person I'm going
to really miss over the next few years is Alan Thornton. And Alan Thornton would tell
you he's no teacher. He'd been a Christian only a
short time. He became a Christian as an adult, not only as an adult,
but after he had been an adult for many years. He'd gone to
church for many years and suddenly one time in church, he realized
that he was not a believer and he came to believe in Christ
as his savior. But you know, one of the things
that Alan would do is he would invite people to come and see.
One of those people, was an individual we had the opportunity to hear,
see, come to faith in Jesus Christ. And I had the opportunity to
see that woman come and be baptized here in our church. And then
I had the opportunity to have the privilege to sit with her
as she was dying of cancer. And you know, the one thing she
wanted more than anything else was for her husband to come and
see. You see, that is evangelism. to know how much you love the
Savior for what he has done for you. Even in that first implication
that you know for the first time that Jesus is the Christ, the
simplicity, the simplicity of the gospel is not necessarily
bad. And sometimes the simplicity
of the statement to just simply say, come and see. And of course, what are they
to see? That Jesus is the Christ, the
Messiah, the Savior, What did the people do? Remember, she'd
been an outcast. She was alone. She was someone
that had a bad reputation, and yet she was so filled with joy
and so urgent upon them, the people began to go out of the
town and come to him. And they could hear for themselves,
see for themselves who Jesus was. You see, Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Christ. He is the son
of the living God. And the joy we have when we understand
he has saved us from our sins. He's given us eternal life when
we don't deserve it. The invitation then is to invite
others to see those things. You don't have to have all the
theology straight. You don't have to have all the
right answers. Sometimes the appropriate thing is first of
all, go in the Bible and see for yourself. Read the book of
John, for example. Or perhaps it's come with me
to church. We'll worship God together and come and see the
words of truth about Jesus Christ because it points not to yourself.
She's not saying look at me. I'm a different person. She's
saying come and see him because he is the Christ. So here is
our duty and our responsibility and our joy. to share with others. Jesus is the Savior. Jesus is
the Christ, the Messiah, who was to come. Let's pray. Father,
we thank you for your sending Jesus to the Samaritan woman,
even indicating, as Jesus said, it was necessary to go through
Samaria. He had this divine appointment
to share the gospel that he is the Christ with this woman, unnamed
in history, and yet whom we shall meet in heaven by your grace.
Father, we pray that we too might have this joyful, evangelistic
attitude that we might invite others to come and see. We pray all these things in Jesus'
name.
Jesus Is the Christ!
Series John
Listen to the woman's pondering of Jesus' identity as she goes from "crazy Jew" to Messiah! Hear the only public claim of Jesus to be the Messiah prior to His trial! Come and see!
| Sermon ID | 310251828374890 |
| Duration | 32:20 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | John 4:25-30 |
| Language | English |
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