11.13.2011 Jesus and the Sinners and Outsiders

SermonAudio

John 4:4 – the Woman at the Well – since it is a long section – I will briefly tell you the story.
Jesus and the disciples are going through Samaria – he asks a woman to get him a drink – and a discussion ensues – it is discovered that she has been married several times.
Lord, we thank You that You are our strength and rescue – You come to our aid and to our help.
Without Your help, we would not be here – we would have made a complete mess of it. – Your grace extends from the cross – it is not about this life – but the next – this woman was about this life – and You are about the next. Help us to be more like You in that.
John 4: 4 And He had to pass through Samaria. 5 So He ^came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There ^came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus ^said to her, "Give Me a drink." 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 The Samaritan woman therefore ^said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
If you are doing the inductive Bible study – you would notice that 6 times the word Samaria or Samaritan appears. There was extreme prejudice and racism between the Jews and Samaritans. The Jews considered them half-breeds – they were half Jewish – and during the exile – they intermarried with others who had conquered –and when the exiles came back there was an animosity there. In our history, we could compare it to the US in the 40s, 50s and 60s and the racism that abounded then – and that might not even compare.
He had to pass through Samaria – it jetted into Israel – and some would cross the Jordan twice to get to the most northern part of Israel. John tends to frame his passage
John 4: 42 and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."
Jesus is not just here for the Jews, but He is the Savior of all. No matter your color, no matter where you are from or how prejudiced you are – you need a Savior.
It was the sixth hour – the middle of the day – the heat of the day – it is important – because it gives us information about the woman. That is NOT the time you go to a well to draw water. Normally, they come right before sundown – when it wasn’t so hot. And the women would come together – and there would be extended family – and the women would know one another. This tells us – for some reason, this woman was not allowed to come to that time. Why? She was an outsider and outcast in an outcast community. She had had 5 husbands. Of all the women who come to the well, all of them were probably touched – and offended by her.
Why are you – a Jew and a man – talking with me, a woman of Samaria.
Men did not talk to women like this in that culture. This woman has 3 strikes against her in accordance with her culture.
Strike 1 – she was a woman – The rabbis had a prayer – thank You, God, that I am not a woman. We don’t want to go there – but thank God we have moved on, praise the Lord!
Strike 2- she is a Samaritan
3 – she is an adultress. For Jesus to begin a conversation with her was very improper. He had a purpose for this – and it wasn’t because He was flaunting His freedom. One has said – He was not a conservative, not a liberal, but a radical. He lived with significant purpose – and that purpose was for people like the woman at the well that Jesus came – the sinner, the outcast, the marginal person – in a common situation. How many like this do we fail to connect with?
10 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." 11 She ^said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
Very smart-alecky – it was no wonder she was divorced 4 times! Oops – I’m slipping away from the text here.
The woman is talking about what? Phsical, material, water. Jesus is talking about what? The Spiritual and Eternal. And it is like they are not connecting at all. But Jesus is using this temporal material need that this woman has – and introduces the spiritual and eternal into it. That is what the passage calls us to do – to introduce the spiritual and eternal into every day situations.
13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. "
You would think at some point – this woman would get it – but look at her response:
15 The woman ^said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw."
And Jesus doesn’t lose patience – He knows He has to go deeper and deeper – she is at the surface, and Jesus is trying to get her to go deeper in her life.
16 He ^said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
At this point – he is beginning to unmask her brokenness. People can’t come to Christ until they are broken. Jesus knows why she is there in the middle of the day – He gets it – He knows she is an outcast. And that is why He is coming to her. I don’t think He is being accusative here.
I remember when I was on campus – and preachers would come to campus and would point at people and call them inappropriate names. I don’t think that is what He was doing here. He is allowing her to see for herself where she is.
17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus ^said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly. "
Alistair Begg says – we have to understand His tone: He completes her confession.
She says – I have no husband – and Jesus – we could think He is jumping on her – but really – He is simply completing her confession. He is a healer, trying to make her whole. He is trying in this situation – to make this woman holy.
19 The woman ^said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you [people] say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." 21 Jesus ^said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. 22 "You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman ^said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." 26 Jesus ^said to her, "I who speak to you am [He."]
What we have – things begin to shift – after Jesus opens up this woman’s brokenness and sinfulness – and then she is able to turn in the conversation. She is beginning to work through her own cultural religion. She begins listing what she understands about God. Jesus begins to correct that. Through that – He brings her to the point where she is now told that HE is the Messiah. And that is His goal all along – to get her to the point to understand who HE is – and to understand who SHE is. All of us, at one point in our lives – are the woman at the well. We are at the same state of brokenness – of lostness – and Jesus gently worked us through it to bring us to a point of faith and change.
None of us comes to faith on our own. He has to lead us there.
The next words are amazing – he just tells her that He is the Messiah – got her right to the point of salvation – and in walk the twelve stooges:
27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He had been speaking with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?"
– The last time anyone asked him something – it was like the Mikey commercial – I’m not going to ask Him – you ask Him – let’s get Peter, he’ll ask Jesus anything!
28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city, and ^said to the men, 29 "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I [have] done; this is not the Christ, is it?" 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. 31 In the meanwhile the disciples were requesting Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 The disciples therefore were saying to one another, "No one brought Him [anything] to eat, did he?"
Remember when the woman was on material and temporal and Jesus was speaking spiritual and eternal – they are back where she was.
34 Jesus ^said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.
It is the sick who need a physician…
35 "Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and [then] comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 "Already he who reaps is receiving wages, and is gathering fruit for life eternal; that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 "For in this [case] the saying is true, 'One sows, and another reaps.' 38 "I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." 39 And from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all the things that I [have] done." 40 So when the Samaritans came to Him,
The disciples weren’t getting it – and Jesus was trying to let them know that the Samaritans were the field that was ripe. To this point, the disciples were unwilling to enter that field of harvest.
Is there a field of harvest that you are unable to enter? On your job – are there Samaritan women at the well – that God wants us to engage with – it may be the person at work whom everyone has trouble getting along with. It might be the person in the neighborhood who is the worst sinner. We all have those folks. But the dicsiples didn’t recognize the harvest was not ready – because they wanted it to come in a certain way. It is always different from what we want, expect, or are comfortable with.
they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
This was totally unheard of! It was enough that they had to pass through it!
41 And many more believed because of His word; 42 and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."
Mission work will always be cross cultural – it is more than just going to another country – but it always pulls us out of our comfort zone – to genuinely reach people God wants you to reach will make you less than comfortable – but you need to go there. It will also go against the tide of religious propriety – that which is acceptable.
And what John is saying – the Church – the community of God – must make a place for those who are difficult – for those who really struggle. For those with great needs – and that is what the community of God is made up of. If we don’t understand that we were the woman at the well – we don’t get how we need Jesus. All of us are this woman – and because Christ has accepted us into His family. The disciples were all in the same situation. They had their flaws, weaknesses, history, background – issues. And Jesus is trying to show them that that is what He is going to make his family up of.
Let’s pray: