I always feel like I owe you a bit of an explanation when we take a departure from what we're going to be covering. This morning we're going to be in John chapter 4. We've been working our way through the Book of Exodus and have come to the Ten Commandments, and many of you know that we've been spending the last weeks looking at that. But this morning we'll be looking at this wonderfully riveting passage of Scripture in John chapter 4. And the reason that we're doing that is somewhat practical reasons. I just need to. Some of you know that just right after the service today, like literally at 1230, I need to run to the car and jump in the car and head down to Pennsylvania. I'll be speaking at a youth retreat there for Grace Bible Church, where a friend of mine pastors. I'll be giving six messages to seventh through twelfth graders on the topic of evangelism and missions. And always one to try to pair up tasks, I thought that I could bring one of the messages that I'll be preaching there to you this morning. And John chapter 4 is one of those messages. I appreciate your prayers as I go to this retreat. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for this formative time in these young people's lives to consider a topic of evangelism and missions, to see that the Lord has called his people to be a part of the proclamation of the gospel and the advance of the gospel around the world. And I'm excited for what the Lord would do. And so I'd ask you to be praying for them, for those teens, and for me as I seek to minister to them God's word about this topic. John chapter 4 is really a foundational passage when it comes to evangelism and missions. When you think about evangelism and missions, you think about the responsibility that we have to go and proclaim the gospel, to make the gospel known, and even to do that to the ends of the earth. And we might be tempted to think that this is something that we do in our own strength, that we could be perhaps the greatest missionary, the greatest evangelist. I'm sure not many of you would think that way, because we understand how intimidating it is. But we have to understand, even before we come to grasp our responsibility in this task, we need to realize that there is a greater and better missionary and evangelist, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. We see him as the missionary and evangelist par excellence in John. In the whole Gospel, we see him as one who has come to save sinners, and he has partaken in the greatest missionary task of all. Missions could be simply defined as crossing some sort of boundary, whether it be cultural or linguistic or geographic or political, to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to a people you wouldn't normally associate with. Jesus accomplished that in the greatest measure when he, the eternal Son of God, took on flesh and dwelt among us. He is the one who has really overcome the greatest of all boundaries to bring us to God. And so before we even consider the idea of how we might evangelize or how we might be a missionary, we need to realize that Jesus Christ is the missionary of missionaries and the evangelist of evangelists. And the gospel of John chapter four shows us him in action. This wonderful passage that shows us Jesus ministering to a woman by the well. It's really the epitome of what a missionary and an evangelist is. My intention is to bring this message to the youth tonight so that they have the opportunity to see and understand the gospel, and that they would perhaps be pricked in their own hearts if they don't already know Christ, know Him as the one who offers living water. And perhaps that would be for you this morning. Also to consider what Jesus offers is the one who has living water, the one who gives it freely. And so that's the first and most important takeaway is to look at the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his excellence and all of his glory that he puts on display here in John chapter 4, and to believe him, to come to him first of all, as the one who gives to us before we would ever dare to think about doing anything for Him. But there's another takeaway from this. As you look at the Lord Jesus Christ and you behold His glory, something happens. you become like him. Not in that you could ever become the one who makes atonement for sins or sacrifices for sins, but you see something in him and you're so stirred by his wisdom and his compassion and his love and his tact that you think, I want to be like that. I want to live like that, and I want to tell others about how great my Savior is. And so it would be my desire that you would look at this from the angle of becoming like Jesus with an eye towards souls that they might come to know Christ. I'd like to read for you first John chapter 3, verses 31 through 36, which sets the stage for us as we jump into John chapter 4. And we'll pray. And then we'll dive into John 4 and consider what the Lord has for us in that passage. Let me read for you John 3, verses 31 through 36. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, John writes, He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, would you give to us a sight of the Lord Jesus Christ as he reveals his glory through the pages of scripture? Pray that you would let us see him, that we might believe him, depend on him, and become like him. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. John chapter four verse one begins with this. 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. This sets the stage for one of the most intriguing conversations that has ever happened, and we'll get to listen to it. It's a conversation that is so important that it changes the entire course of one woman's life, and because of it being recorded in scripture, it has changed the course of countless lives thereafter. At this point in Jesus' ministry, he had been in the region of Judea, that's the southern portion of Israel, and he'd been ministering there, having some teaching time and performing some miracles. And while he's there, he gains a following And because John the Baptist, who is the forerunner of Jesus and had been preparing people, begins the part of his ministry where he decreases and Jesus the Christ increases, there becomes a bit of a tension because the disciples of John realize that they are baptizing fewer people than Jesus is baptizing. Not only this, but the Pharisees, the leaders of religious kind of contemporary religious practice of the day are also realizing this. Jesus gets wind of this and decides to depart and go back to Galilee, away from the epicenter of the Jewish religion. This is most likely to avoid premature conflict. Jesus, when he gets around the Pharisees and teaches, just can't help but kind of create some conflict, not because he's doing anything wrong, but because what he says is so at odds with what they teach. And so as his influence is growing, he decides to leave because his hour has not yet come to go to the cross and to be crucified, which the Pharisees and other religious leaders will ultimately do to him. And so he departs for Galilee, which is in the north. It's the northern part of Israel. And to get there, he had to pass through Samaria. Samaria was a region that originally was just the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, but eventually as there was exile of the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria, the region of Samaria was then populated by kind of the lowest class of Jews, but also resettled with Assyrians and other people of other religions. mixed together with the people who were there, the Jewish people, and it kind of created this hybrid religion and a hybrid people who had a mixture of Judaism along with paganism, and they became a group of people that were despised by pure-blooded Jews. And Jesus passes through that because it's the most direct course to get to Galilee. And when he's there, he comes to a city called Sychar, which is a kind of a town nestled between two very important mountains in the Old Testament, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. You can look in Deuteronomy to see what the importance of those are. It's a place where Israel called out the blessings and curses of the covenant. And between that is situated this town and there's a well there, Jacob's well, and people continue to use that. And Jesus being wearied from his journeying, sits down by the well in that area to rest. He's experiencing, quite literally, physical weariness in his humanity. He was not exempt from feeling the taxing nature of all the travel and all the teaching and all the ministry that he was doing. And so he sits down by that well and rests. And then comes this interaction with this woman that is, in one sense, completely unexpected. And as we work through this, we'll just kind of handle it phrase by phrase and see how the Lord handles this woman. It says in verse seven that a woman from Samaria came to draw water. There's nothing unusual about that. Of course, she would have to come and draw water in order to just survive. But what is unusual in this moment is that normally if there had been some Jewish rabbi there and there had been a Samaritan woman that had come by, they most likely would have just averted their glances, ignored each other, and gone on with their life without having a word between them exchanged. But Jesus is not a normal Jewish rabbi. And a conversation that otherwise never would have taken place comes to pass because Jesus initiates this conversation when he speaks to her and says, give me a drink. Words that almost no one else would have uttered. He begins a conversation that wouldn't have taken place really in any other scenario happens because Jesus is unlike anybody else. And he initiates a conversation. If it had been anyone else, this whole chapter would not have happened. This chapter is placed side by side with chapter 3, of course, which happens to contain the experience of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and he came to Jesus by night, and he came and asked Jesus a question. Rabbi says, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them, and he initiates that conversation. And it places side by side this encounter Jesus has with Nicodemus with the encounter Jesus has with this woman. Nicodemus was a teacher, a Pharisee, a ruler, a leader. This woman was nobody and kind of a moral outcast. One commentator puts it this way, John may intend a contrast between the woman of this narrative and Nicodemus of chapter 3. He was learned, powerful, respected, orthodox, theologically trained. She was unschooled, without influence, despised, capable only of folk religion. He was a man, a Jew, a ruler. She was a woman, a Samaritan, a moral outcast. And both needed Jesus. While this Conversation has the initial trappings of just kind of a very physical and kind of reasonable almost encounter. There's something more that's going on here, more than meets the eye. says at the end of this chapter in verse 31, after his disciples come by and urge him to eat, he says, but he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Jesus has eyes focused on one thing, and that is to do the will of his Father in heaven. So when John says that Jesus had to go through Samaria, in one sense there's a physical explanation for that, because that's the quickest path from Judea to Samaria, but in another sense it is because Jesus has his heart set on one thing, It is to do the will of his father in heaven, and his will of his father in heaven is for his son to seek and save that which was lost, and this woman is living in darkness. And so Jesus comes to this well, wearied from his journey, and initiates a conversation that otherwise would never have happened by simply asking for a drink. His disciples aren't around, and so he has kind of uninterrupted conversation with this woman. And so the woman responds in verse 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. Quite literally, the way that that expression is stated is that Jews don't use the same things as Samaritans. They consider Samaritans as defiled. They are unclean. And so if they were to share a cup or a utensil, it would pass the uncleanness from the Samaritans onto the Jews and the Jews wouldn't want anything to do with that. And this woman is aware of this kind of cultural norm and she brings it up to Jesus. How is it that you, a Jew, are asking me for a drink It's totally unusual, and the breaking down of a cultural norm that was pretty much standardized. Now, of course, Jesus' disciples are in town buying food, so there are limits on how far it goes, but to exchange water and drink from the same cup of someone is totally unheard of. It's a little bit like rewinding in our own culture's history when there was a division at drinking fountains between whites and a drinking fountain labeled colored only. Be totally unusual for those to get swapped. And Jesus is swapping it right now. And the woman's wheels are churning. How could this be? Because not only was it unusual for a Jew to interact with a Samaritan this way, but it is even more unusual for a Jewish man to interact with a Samaritan woman. Probably never happened. And not only that, but for a woman with her reputation, as we'll find out later, for a Jewish teacher to interact with a woman of this moral standing is completely unheard of. And it reveals to us that Jesus was, what he was doing was beyond unusual, not just in his actions, but in his motives and in his values. Because his motive, again, is to do what his father sent him to do, and what his father sent him to do is to seek and to save the lost. And that is always on his mind. And he values life and truth and worship, so he is not afraid of interacting in a way that others never would have. This is the kind of Jesus that we have. One whose ways and words break down the cultural norms into which they enter. And this, by the way, should still be the case. Jesus' words and ways are no less powerful now than they were 2,000 years ago. They still, where they come, break down barriers and divisions. Paul the apostle was basically arrested because he, being a Jew, was associating with Gentiles. This goes on throughout the history of evangelism and missions. Two of the messages I'll be giving to these youth will be on missionary biographies. I'll be speaking to them about two missionaries. One is John Payton and the other is Lillias Trotter. John Payton was a missionary from Scotland to what was then called the New Hebrides, now called Vanuatu, and there are islands in the South Pacific that were inhabited by cannibals. Missionaries had previously gone to those islands and been killed, cooked, and eaten. And John Payton decides that he wants to go And he lands on the island and he's eager to meet with the people there and learn their language so that he can put at least a few words together in order to communicate to them the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As soon as he's able to put a sentence together, that's what he's telling them. He's so persuaded about the power of the gospel of Christ that those who think he's crazy for going to islands where he could die have no sway on him because he's going. Lilius Trotter was an upper-class Victorian-era woman who had a life of ease and independent wealth, could really live as easy as she wanted to, but she got caught by the gospel of Jesus Christ, gave up a life of ease and also expression of really gifted artistic talent that she could have become quite famous for. and left it behind in order to go and serve the Muslims of Algeria with the gospel, and particularly the Muslim women who were basically kept in the home and out of the public eye all day long. And she, likewise, with John Payton, as soon as she could learn a few words of Arabic, wanted to put sentences together so she could communicate the gospel to those people who were living in darkness. Jesus and his people continue to break down cultural norms and standards in order to communicate the good news, the grace of Jesus Christ. And so this woman asks this question because she just doesn't get it. How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? But Jesus responds to this. And as he responds, he helps us to see something so beautiful. This woman is really scandalized that Jesus would ask her for a drink, but Jesus is going to show there's another scandal going on here. The woman is scandalized because he, a Jewish man, asked her, a Samaritan woman, for a drink. But there's something that's much more shocking going on here. You just need eyes to see it. What is more shocking, Jesus says, is verse 10. 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. The real shocking thing here isn't that Jesus is asking her for water. It's that she isn't asking him for living water that is eternal life. That's the shocking part. The real scandal is that she isn't asking him for eternal life. If you knew the gift of God, Jesus says, and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him. Jesus, again, is viewing people not from just physical eyes, but from spiritual eyes, seeing the precious thing that each person possesses is their soul. This is very akin to what Jesus says elsewhere, is what profit is it to gain the whole world and forfeit your soul? That should be the driving ambition of anyone's life, is to know what is going to happen to your soul. We get so consumed with what's gonna happen to our physical bodies, and there's certainly a place for that, but the primary question that should be on every human being's heart, because eternity is written on our hearts, is what is going to happen to your soul? And the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, the one who came to bring eternal life, is sitting there speaking this with this woman, the scandal is that she isn't immediately asking him for eternal life. Jesus understands that she doesn't really know, and so He says, if you knew the gift of God, and she doesn't, the gift of God is eternal life given through His Son. It's really 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. If she had known that gift and the one who was speaking to her is the one who has the ability to give it, then she would have asked Him. and he gives freely. Notice Jesus asks her for a drink and she kind of scoffs at him. And Jesus turns it around and is so free and generous that he offers her a drink. She doesn't know the gift of God and she doesn't know who is speaking to her. Externally, all she sees is this weary Jewish rabbi who's thirsty and has some peculiar cultural views. But Jesus knows exactly who he is and exactly what he gives. But still, he speaks in a veiled kind of way. He says he would have given you living water. What is that? If someone offered you that, what would you think? Well, if you know the context of the Bible, you might have a clue, but for this woman, she's probably thinking that Jesus is offering to get up and to lead her somewhere where there's a bubbling brook, a fresh spring, and he could show her that. But the way that he speaks give further opportunity for this conversation to continue, and for her to be drawn out by Jesus as he engages with her. And as she responds to Jesus' statement, she shows that she doesn't know who she is talking to, but she really needs to. She says, In verse 11, the woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock. This woman has some points of contention with Jesus, as she thinks he's just not quite getting it. She first observes, that he has nothing to draw water with. So if he offers her water, how is he gonna give it to her? Because remember, Jesus, you're asking me for water. You don't even have anything to draw water with. Secondly, the well is deep. The well still exists today. It's about 100 feet deep. So Jesus couldn't just lean over with his hands and scoop some up and give himself water, much less her any water. So how is he gonna give her any water? Furthermore, she thinks that he doesn't really have access to this living water. Where do you get that living water? She's skeptical. She thinks it's ridiculous that he would claim to have this. And furthermore, she thinks that even if he did have access to water, he would have to be greater than Jacob in order for that water to be of any significance to her. Jacob is a key figure in the Old Testament. This is Jacob's well and she can get water from Jacob's well. And she thinks, Jesus, you're not greater than Jacob because he gave us the well and drank from it himself. You see the little jab there into Jesus? Jesus can't even drink from that well himself. How is he gonna give her living water? What good did he do? Not only did Jacob get himself water, but he also gave his livestock water and his sons. What good is this Jesus? Jesus, of course, is better, is greater than Jacob, and he can give this living water that he's referring to, and he doesn't need anything to draw it with, and the source of the water that he offers is actually so high that nobody else can access it except himself and give it to others. takes a different approach than answering directly in order to help her understand that this woman and Jesus are really talking about two different things. Jesus gives a response that is going to show her the inadequacy of drinking only natural water. Jesus says in verse 13, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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. It's kind of a no-brainer, but your body needs water in order to survive. We're going to drink several more times today. There's that kind of fact out there, you're supposed to have eight cups of water every day. I don't know how legitimate that is, but the point is you need to drink, and you need to drink a substantial amount in order to just continue to function. In one sense, it's a bit odd, isn't it, that every day, no matter how much we drank or we ate the day before, we find ourselves thirsty again, or we find ourselves hungry again. And no matter how much you eat and drink today, you're going to come to tomorrow and you're going to find that you're thirsty and you're hungry again. It's never enough. It's this relentless cycle in your life where you have to continue to eat and you have to continue to drink. And it's also temporary. The satisfaction and the quenching that comes from a glass of water, oh, it's great in the moment, but it only lasts a few minutes, a few hours. And then you need more. And so as Jesus is accused, really, of not being greater than Jacob, he goes on to basically imply about Jacob's well that if you come and drink water from this well, you're going to be thirsty again. And so in order for Jesus to prove himself greater than Jacob, he has to give a kind of water that's better than Jacob's water. And Jesus then says, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. And the woman might think, well, that's the case for every well. That's kind of just a no-brainer. It'll only satisfy your thirst for a little while. But again, she asked if Jesus is greater than Jacob. And he is answering that. And the water that Jacob gives is temporary, but the thirst quenching that Jesus gives is permanent. never thirsty again, Jesus says. Not only that, but the very water that is given to the person by this Jesus will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. You have in yourself this water that is so sufficient and constant that you never need to drink again because in your own life there is now this bubbling up. You think, Who talks like this? Who says things like Jesus says things? He will give you a kind of water that if you drink it, you'll never be thirsty again. It's like magic water. Even if you took that physically, that you could have a drink of something that would quench your thirst for the rest of your life, you'd wanna know a little bit more about it. What is this drink? Some people associate drink with just kind of the pleasure of it, like coffee or tea, and if you took that out of your life, you wouldn't know why you're alive. This is such a part of what satisfies you. But Jesus isn't just talking about that which tastes good, he's talking about that which sustains your life, especially in an arid region like this, where of course water is needed for everybody on the planet, but where water is scarce, it's all the more important and you know your dependence on it. And Jesus is pointing out to this woman that there is a kind of water which if you take it, it will sustain you for the entirety of life and beyond into eternal life. If you take the cup offered by Jesus and drink it, you never have to open another bottle of water or turn on the tap again. It's at least the way this is sounding to this woman. He speaks the kind of water that he gives. It's distinct from what the woman is thinking, but there's been enough suggested to her that is provocative. And so the woman responds in verse 15. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. The woman's response reveals that eternal life and having your thirst quenched is desirable to anyone, but not necessarily desired with the right understanding for what you're actually being offered. She asks now, she's intrigued. Give me this water. And she responds with some enthusiasm, but not with full understanding. Because she has two reasons for why she wants to have this water given to her. One reason is so that she might not be thirsty again. Yeah, go ahead, give me that magic water. That sounds pretty good. I'll take that. That's one reason. And the second reason is, or have to come here to draw water. This could turn out to be better than Jacob's well because she has to come to Jacob's well every day to get water. Coming in the heat of the day, avoiding the crowds with the other women of whom she is likely an outcast from because of her lifestyle. It would be ideal in order to avoid all of that. And she's thinking about it purely from a physical perspective. Notice that she says nothing about eternal life, nor a real acknowledgement of who she is speaking to. She sets her sights too low. Jesus has something better to offer. But she still accepts her, give me this water. And Jesus responds. And he says, in verse 16, Jesus almost takes a left turn here. Like, where in the world did that come from? But his response, which seems to change the subject, is now actually just beginning the process of giving this living water as she had asked him. Remember, Jesus said, anyone who asks me, I will give. Well, she's asked him. Are we to think that he hasn't begun to give it to her? But the way that he gives it to her is so different from the way that we would think about doing it. It's so foreign, almost. If we got somebody in this position, we've been talking about eternal life, and they say, give me this water, we would say, all right, let's seal the deal. Bow your head and repeat after me, and we're gonna pray. But Jesus is too wise for that. The kind of water that he is giving to this woman is so unique that it requires him to take a path that looks so foreign to her and to us, but in reality, it is showing that the kind of water he gives is the kind of water that will actually quench the kind of thirst that she needs to have quenched in her life. And so Jesus says, go call your husband and come here. And again, we think, what is Jesus doing? Why does he bring her husband into this? Is he trying to bring him into this to kind of incorporate him into this sweet deal? And there's a note of irony in this because he says, go call your husband and come here. But do you remember what the woman said? Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. And yet Jesus is saying the location that you need to come in order to receive this water is precisely the place you don't want to be. The kind of water Jesus gives is of such a different kind. It's not that he's withholding this water. It's that he's actually in the process of giving the kind of water that she actually needs. The kind of water that's meant to be taken in through the heart by faith and addresses your real life. Jesus, with laser-like precision, pinpoints the location of her life that this really needs to be applied to. Jesus is so skilled at this. The woman responds, in verse 17, the woman answered him, I have no husband. This woman has not been short on words, She's had not too much to say, but she's been willing to speak with some level of clarity, but this becomes the very shortest statements that she makes in the whole conversation. It's just three words in the Greek, a few more in English. I have no husband. Very matter of fact. You would think with a statement like that, there might be something attached to it. I have no husband, but I really like one. Or I have no husband, been divorced. Or I have no husband, I'd rather not talk about it. I guess that's what she's implying. It's just a statement of sheer fact. Almost looks like a closed door. And it shows that Jesus has touched a nerve in her life that needs to be touched, and the living water needs to be applied there. Jesus responds, and His response shows that He has a way of exposing His listener to their truest need. Do you recall the incident where Jesus has the rich young ruler come up to him, kneels down to him and says, teacher, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, you know the commandments. And the young ruler says, I've kept all of those from a youth, what else do I lack? And Jesus says, you lack one thing. Go sell all that you have. Give to the poor. and come follow me." Jesus doesn't say the same thing to the rich jeweler as he says to the woman, but he says the same kind of thing where he is able to pinpoint what that person's life is dealing with in that moment and help them to bring it out so they can see what needs to be dealt with in order for them to come back to Jesus and actually follow him. And so Jesus says, go call your husband, come here. She says, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, you are right in saying, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands. And the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true. Yeah, the exact place in her flesh that she does not want to come is the exact place that Jesus is forcing her to deal with. I have no husband. You know, I don't know how Jesus interacts with you precisely. He's still exceptionally skilled at addressing the very nerve of our life that needs to be dealt with. You could be asked that question, go call your husband and come here, and you could say, okay, fine, no big deal. But Jesus particularizes what needs to happen. Jesus could say, go, get your browsing history and come here. You say, I have no browsing history. Jesus would say, you're right in saying you have no browsing history. You deleted your browsing history. And the browsing history you now have is not your own. It's a freight. It's a fake. I don't know how he does it in your life. I know how he's done it in my life. His word is living and active. Open his word, let him speak to you, and address the very nerve of your life that needs to be addressed. He is skillful at it. He is not doing it to harm you. He's doing it to bring to you eternal life. Jesus tenderly deals with her. He doesn't slam her in the face. He says, you're right, and saying, I have no husband. She's not lying, per se. But he calls her passed out, for you have had five husbands. The one that you now have is not your husband. We don't know the history. It's fruitless to speculate. It could be divorce, it could be death. The fact of the matter is that Jesus points out the one that she is now with is not her husband. It's a gentle way of saying that she's committing fornication, adultery. Her life is a life of immorality. And again, pretty much everybody else would have put this woman off to the side, this immoral woman, have nothing to do with her. She's a Samaritan and she's immoral. But Jesus is the kind of Savior who when unclean things come to Him and He touches them, He can make them clean. When the leper came to Jesus in Matthew chapter 8, and everybody else would flee from that leper and say, stay away. And the leper comes to Jesus and says, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said, I will be clean. That's the kind of Savior he is, the one who touches unclean things to make them clean. And that's what he's doing with this woman. Jesus is not afraid to put people into an uncomfortable position in order to help them see what they need. And this woman is beginning to now have the lights go on, and the one that she originally saw as just a weary Jewish traveler is now manifesting the very glory of God before her eyes. And so her response is in verse 19. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. The woman's response shows that she's realizing there's something more to Jesus than she originally knew, but she's not quite there yet to the fullness of who she is. She declares him to be a prophet based on what he's just said. She sees that he has insight into her life that he couldn't otherwise have except by divine access. And in doing so, she implicitly acknowledges the legitimacy of what Jesus had just said. But the way that she speaks almost seems like she's taking a left-hand turn now. She's changing the subject. One pastor describes it like this, speaking of my adultery, where is the right place to worship? Kind of want to crawl out of this situation. Maybe it's that the motives aren't clear. Sometimes it's our natural inclination when we're engaged with somebody who has theological differences with us to bring those up so we can clarify where we're at. Maybe it's that. Either way. It's not told to us why she says this, but we do see that Jesus addresses the statement about this location of worship. The problem was that the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem, the location of the temple, and the Samaritans, who rejected all of the Old Testament, except for the first five books, and in a changed manner, thought that Mount Gerizim was the place of worship, and they had other customs that they did to complete their worship. And the question the woman asks is, where are we to worship? And while we think it might be a distraction from the main point, Jesus actually uses it as a means to bring about the essence of what she needs to know. And so Jesus responds not by just trying to get back to what he was just talking about, but by addressing the crux of the matter. And he says in verse 21, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews, but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Jesus responds by helping this woman to see what a true life of devotion to God looks like. It says, the hour is coming, that's always in the Gospel of John, a reference to Jesus' coming, death, resurrection, and exaltation, and all of the implications from that. And Jesus says, basically, that hour is so close that it's already here in the sense that he has inaugurated a new era where a kind of worship is being established that's unlike what has passed before. And this statement sums up what she really needs because she needs to be a worshiper of God in spirit and in truth. In spirit and truth, and she lacks both of those kinds of worship. To be marked by the spirit is to say that she needs to be a person who has been born from above, born of the spirit, born again, that her life is so transformed by the gospel of grace that she becomes a new person and that the kind of worship that she needs to be offered to God is to be in accordance with what God has disclosed through his self-revelation in the Son. And she lacked both of those because her life is marked by the flesh, a life of immorality, a life of just seeing things through physical eyes and not seeing beyond any more than that. And in truth, she lacks that as well because she is deprived of much of the revelation of the Old Testament. She's deprived of the reality that salvation is from the Jews. That means it's the revelation of God's redemptive plan throughout the whole of the Old Testament, culminating in the Lord Jesus Christ. She needs her life renovated by the Spirit, because God is Spirit. He is so immense, so pure, that He dwells in unapproachable light, and the kind of worship that He needs to receive is the kind of worship that is done in Spirit and truth. Jesus really draws this to the crux of the matter. She needs a new life that is founded on the revelation of God that culminates in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this stirs up in the woman a realization that there is somebody someday who is going to tell them everything they need to know. And so she says in verse 25, the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He was called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. She knows that she needs to know more, and she knows that's located in the Messiah. Remember what Jesus said at the start? 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. This woman knows that there's a Messiah that's coming, And Jesus responds to her in verse 26, the apex of this whole conversation, the place that it's all being driven towards to get her ready for this moment. I who speak to you am He. And that's the goal. That's the goal of missions. It's the goal of evangelism. is to bring people to a point of realization that Jesus of Nazareth, the one who on the outside looked like a weary journey rabbi, is the one who is the Christ who will tell you all things and gives living water to those who ask him. For those who have drunk of the living water of Jesus, you know how satisfying it is. You know that you've been given the gift of eternal life and it's a spring welling up in you that can never be taken away. There are those who don't know that yet. And you need to let Jesus lead you to the place where he touches the nerve of your life, to show you the very place where he needs to enter in and address what you need most, namely to become a new person who worships in spirit and in truth. And if you've tasted of Christ, you know His goodness, you see how wonderful He is, let the affection for Him make you like Him, that you would engage others in order to bring them to the knowledge of this lovely Savior. Let's pray. Father, you have given us such a wonderful salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. So complete, so sufficient that nothing can be added to it. To take away from it or to add to it is to completely devastate it. So Lord, let us keep it pure and undefiled. Help us, Father, to make Christ Jesus the center of our whole life and to let him speak to us. We thank you that he is the one who gives living water and gives it freely. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen.