The Gift & The Giver | Sunday, May 16, 2021
May 14, 2021 · Pastor Miles DeBenedictis
In this teaching
Using the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, Pastor Miles teaches practical lessons for sharing the gospel: pursuing lost people, avoiding excuses and distractions, and revealing both "the gift of God" (living water/eternal life) and "the giver" (Jesus, the great I AM). The teaching reinforces the church's vision of life in connection with God, one another, and the world.
- We live in a broken, fallen world groaning for restoration; we were created for connection with God and one another but lost it through sin.
- The biblical gospel is the story of how God, through Jesus' death on the cross, reconciles us to himself and to one another.
- Believers are commissioned to share this good news; evangelism need not frighten us, for God enables what he commands.
- From John 4 we learn to stop avoiding lost people, refuse excuses, step outside our comfort zone, and not be distracted by political or worthless debate.
- Jesus revealed both the gift of God (living water/eternal life) and the giver (himself, the great I AM), using persuasion principles like reciprocity and scarcity.
- Once we have tasted this living water, we must not be shy about sharing it; like the woman, we leave our water pot and tell others.
Readable is a lightly edited reading copy; Verbatim stays close to the spoken words. The audio and video are the record of what was said.
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. ()
Lessons from Jesus and the woman at the well on how to share the good news with a world in desperate need of connection.
Living in Interesting Times
It has been said that life is better in uninteresting times. I'm not sure if that's true, but we have not lived in uninteresting times for a very long time. Think about the upheavals of the last 25 years: a presidential scandal and impeachment in 1998, the tumultuous 2000 election with its hanging and pregnant chads in Florida, settled finally by the Supreme Court.
Then came the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil in September 2001, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the subprime mortgage crisis and market crash of 2008–2009, the Great Recession, the unlikely presidency of Donald Trump, and all the craziness of COVID-19 and the chaos that followed. We are still in that cycle—political chaos, market chaos, racial chaos, global chaos, problems in Asia and once again in the Middle East. We are most certainly in interesting times.
And before all of this, there were the problems of the 1970s, the tumult of the 1960s with political assassinations and the Vietnam War, the Red Scare and Korean War of the 1950s, World War II in the 1940s. Is there ever really an uninteresting time? It doesn't seem so, because we live in a broken and fallen world—a world affected by sin, experiencing both natural and moral evils, a world in desperate need of restoration. In , Paul says the whole of creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time.
Created for Connection
For the last five weeks we have been revisiting our vision as a church. For those who have been here a while, this is review—but reviews are important, especially right before the test. I believe we are in a time of testing and trial, and you need to be prepared, because there are things you're going to be tested on.
We were created for connection. God made us to live life in connection with him—the vertical relationship—and in connection with one another on the horizontal level. I believe we see this even at the level of being. You have a soul, the real you, where intellect, emotion, and will reside. Your soul is animated by the body and connects with God at the level of the spirit and with others in this world at the level of the body. At the very level of being, we were made to live in connection with God and one another.
But though we were created for connection, we lost that connection through rebellious disobedience—through sin in the fall in . We are born separated from God and divided from one another, and yet we deeply desire to be connected with God and one another. The biblical gospel, the good news about Jesus, is the story of how God set out to bring us back into connection with him and with one another. Jesus is the mediator of this reconciliation and the means by which it is possible, because in his body on the cross he defeated sin and death.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation... so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross... Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. ()
Called to Carry the Good News
We are called to carry this good news to the world. Our vision is life in connection with God, with one another, and with the world through Jesus. Jesus told his early followers, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" () and commissioned them to make disciples of all nations (). If you are a believer in and follower of Jesus, you are called and commissioned to share this good news.
The idea of sharing the gospel—what Christians have long called evangelism—often frightens us, but it doesn't have to. Sharing the good news is just like sharing about a really good restaurant you ate at last week, or your favorite author or recipe. Still, it makes some of us anxious. So today I want to give you some practical tips from Jesus about sharing the good news, found in one of the great stories of Scripture where Jesus brought light to someone in darkness.
Jesus Sought Out the Needy
On his way from Jerusalem back to Galilee, the Scriptures say Jesus needed to go through Samaria. Even at the start of this story there are key things to consider.
First, Jesus sought out people who were in need. He went where needy people were. We've considered many times that Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost (). One of our challenges, because of our tribalistic tendencies, is that we tend to avoid lost people who are in need. The Jews in Jesus' day did the same. A faithful Jew was required to go to Jerusalem three times a year—Passover, Pentecost, and the fall feasts. Samaria lay between Galilee and Judea, but Jews would cut across to the east side of the Jordan to bypass it, because Samaritans were an ethnic minority they did not like.
My wife and I love to visit Santa Barbara, but I'll do almost anything to avoid driving through Los Angeles. The Jews basically did the same with Samaria. But not Jesus. The Scriptures say he needed to go through Samaria, because his purpose in coming was to seek and to save that which is lost. So we have a simple application: if you want to be faithful to Jesus' commission, stop avoiding lost people.
No Excuses, No Comfort Zones
Second, Jesus interacted with lost people even when he was tired and hungry. The first verses of tell us he was weary and thirsty, and his disciples had gone into the city to find food, so he was probably hungry too. A better way to say it is that Jesus didn't look for excuses to avoid talking with people about the gospel. We, on the other hand, are excuse-prone: I'm busy, I'm tired, I have somewhere to be, they might ask a question I can't answer, I'm not an evangelist. We need to stop making dumb excuses for not engaging with lost people.
Third, Jesus was willing to step out of his comfort zone to interact with outsiders. The woman he meets had several strikes against her. She was a woman—and in that culture, interacting with a woman who was not your wife or family was out of bounds. She was a Samaritan, and no Jewish rabbi would have dealings with a Samaritan woman. And, as we'll see, she was likely a moral outcast; the fact that she comes to the well at noon, rather than in the cool of morning or evening, suggests she was avoiding the other women.
If you're going to fulfill the commission to preach the gospel to every creature, you need to be willing to step outside your comfort zone. I won't lie—that isn't always easy. But I can promise you this: if you stop avoiding lost people and are willing to step out of your comfort zone, God will enable and empower you by his Holy Spirit. How can I make such an audacious promise? Because God does not command what he does not also enable. As Jesus said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" ().
Don't Take the Bait
Here's a side note before we go on: evangelism is, at its base, about persuasion. We go to people who don't believe as we believe and try to persuade them. According to persuasion experts, the first rule of persuasion is reciprocity—if I do a favor for you, you feel inclined to do one for me. By asking for a drink, Jesus employs this rule and starts a conversation.
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. ()
Most of us might be completely shut down by that. This is the first-century equivalent of "You shouldn't be talking to me—don't you know you've crossed a cultural line?" There were long-standing ethnic, cultural, and political issues dividing Jews from Samaritans, going back hundreds of years. But note that Jesus was not distracted by political drama. Let me say that again, because it's so important at this moment in our country: Jesus was not distracted by political drama. He didn't take the bait.
Don't be trolled into worthless, divisive, and unnecessary conversations. So many of our conversations spiral down into division. Don't get bogged down in things with no eternal value—arguments over politics, strange theological debates, arguments over preferences. If you're going to fulfill the commission, do your best, as enabled by the Spirit, not to be distracted or drawn into debate about worthless things.
The Gift and the Giver
Instead of being distracted, Jesus zeroed in on what was really important. In John's Gospel we see many of these private conversations—with the woman at the well, with Nicodemus, with the lame man, with the man born blind. Jesus focuses on what matters and reveals that this woman is ignorant of two things.
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." ()
She was ignorant of the gift of God and the giver of the gift. The Samaritans were a very religious and spiritual people—like many people we interact with who say they're "spiritual but not religious"—but they were aimlessly worshiping in the wrong way and missing the point. Jesus suggests to her that he might be more important than she realizes, and that he has what she really needs. This is another rule of persuasion: scarcity. He's introducing the idea that she's missing out on what she really desires. When we tell people they were created for something more than they're experiencing—life in connection with God and one another—we're introducing scarcity, and it makes people ask, "What am I missing? What am I really searching for?"
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...?" ()
Jesus has sown seeds of inquiry to trigger deeper talk. She assumes his limitations, thinking the gift is purely material, and she invokes the patriarch Jacob, a common ancestor to both Jews and Samaritans. His aim is to reveal her need and then the solution by talking about the gift and the giver.
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 gift is not material. If you seek the things of this world, you will not be satisfied; but if you drink of Christ, you will be fully satisfied—not only in this life but into everlasting life. And you'll become a source of life-giving satisfaction for others, able to share this living water.
The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." ()
Revealing the Giver
She's begun to understand what the gift is and asks for it. But Jesus doesn't immediately give it, because he said you must know both the gift and the giver. So now he reveals who he really is.
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." ()
That's a little awkward, but here is an important point: don't be afraid to offend, because the message we carry is in some respects offensive. Before a person can experience the saving grace and forgiveness of Christ, they have to acknowledge their lostness and their sin. Jesus' response reveals that he is something more than a Jewish man at a well.
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." ()
The Samaritans worshiped near Mount Gerizim; the Jews in Jerusalem on the temple mount. She gives Jesus a kind of prophet's test: who is right?
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father... But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth... God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said, "I know that Messiah is coming... When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." ()
In the original Greek, verse 26 literally reads, "I AM is speaking to you." If you've read from Genesis through Exodus, you know that in Moses asks God who is speaking from the burning bush, and God says, "I AM WHO I AM... tell them I AM has sent you." Jesus mirrors those exact words. When the woman says the Christ will reveal all things, Jesus says, in effect, "I AM the Christ is speaking to you." He has now revealed both the gift—living water that satisfies eternally—and the giver, his true nature.
Leaving the Water Pot
The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Then they went out of the city and came to Him. ()
She left her water pot—an indication that she found what she had been looking for. And she became an instant evangelist. Immediately after discovering the gift of God and the giver, she goes into the city and tells everyone, "Come and see."
Don't be shy about sharing with others what you have found in Jesus. If you've discovered through the gospel this good news—the gift of life more abundantly, everlasting life, living water, the bread of life, the path of life, the gate, the door—whatever metaphor you choose—if you've tasted that Jesus brings connection with God and one another, don't be shy about sharing it. That's what we're commissioned to do, and that's what we as a church are all about. Jesus has reconciled us to God and given us new life forever. Once we've tasted that, we cannot keep quiet.
Connected to God, One Another, and the World
This past week I was listening to a psychiatrist, a doctor who trained and taught at Oxford University. He said—and this blew my mind—that science and the social sciences have discovered three very important things humans need: connection to one another, connection to this world (literally getting out into nature), and connection to a body of like-minded people who worship and share the same values. And this man isn't even a believer. Yet he was saying we need to be connected to one another, to God, and to the world.
This is exactly what we find when we come to the pages of Scripture and the gospel. This is what we as a church want to share with our neighbors, family members, co-workers, and friends—that the way we experience life, and that more abundantly, is to be brought into connection with God, with one another, and with all that God has made. That is where we fulfill the purpose for which we were made. So if you are a believer, if you've trusted Jesus Christ, don't be shy about sharing this good news of what you've found in him.
Closing Prayer
Father God, I pray that you would cause these things to be in our hearts—and not just in our hearts and minds, but on our lips, that we would share them with other people. I pray for anyone watching right now that you would give us those opportunities this week that we have a hard time getting out of, that we cannot deny. And when we have those opportunities, that we would share the good news of who you are and what you've done in our lives, so that others might know this life and life more abundantly that we have with you and in you—that they might experience connection with you, with one another, and with all that you have made. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Days may be darkest, but Your light is greater. You light our way, God. You light our way. When evil is rising, You're rising higher with power to save, with power to save. You keep hope alive.
Because Your life was stronger, Jesus, You are. Because You're breathing, there's hope in the breaking, hope in the sorrow, hope for this moment, and my hope for tomorrow. There's hope in the morning, there's hope in the evening, there's hope because You're living in.
Hope, cause you're breathing in this hope in the breaking. You keep hope alive.
From the beginning, Jesus, you are alive. The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now. The Savior knelt to wash our feet; now at His feet, we bow.
Hi, my name's Dale. Welcome to church! Invite somebody to church right now.
Heavenly Father, we thank You, God, for this day, Lord, that You have made. We have come here to tell You, Lord, that You are worthy of all our praise. You are worthy of it all; You are worthy of all our worship. God, we just ask that You would help us to draw near to You with everything that we are—our whole heart, mind, strength, and soul.
Lord, our desire is to give You the highest praise, our best. We just want to lift You up and lift Your name, O God. So, Lord, as we minister to You, we ask that You would minister to us. Thank You, Jesus, for hearing our prayers. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Spirit. And it's in Your name we pray. Amen.
So, Jesus, we give You the highest praise. You deserve it all.
You deserve it all. We give you the highest praise. You deserve it all, God. You deserve it all.
There on a tree, bruised and broken in shame for all to see, Father laid down His life. We give you the glory. You deserve it all. You deserve it all.
With every breath that's in my lungs, my heart cries out to You. To You belongs the glory.
Through every loss of victory, my soul will rise to only bring You glory. With every breath that's in my lungs, my heart cries out to You. We give You the highest praise; You deserve it all. My heart cries out to You.
Welcome! Thanks for tuning in to our online service. I'm Pastor Garrett, and here at Cross Connection Church, we're all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ. Part of the way I want to encourage you in living life in connection today is from your home.
Wherever you're meeting and watching the service, prayer is essential. We can live life in connection with God through prayer, no matter where we are. Here at Cross Connection Church, our pastors and prayer team would love to pray with and for you specifically. If there's anything we can pray for you this week, let us know at prayer.lifeinconnection.com. Again, God answers; He hears all of our prayers, and He is faithful to answer them. So let's lift up whatever is going on in your life to the Lord this week. We would love to partner with you in prayer.
A couple of changes for next week: we will be changing the order of service a little bit. We will still be here at the same time online next week, but the order of service and how it will be formatted will be a little different. I just wanted to give you a heads-up about that.
Our mission this week focuses on our missionaries in the Middle East who are ministering to Muslims. I can't provide too much information to protect their identity and their ministry, but please be praying for them. Recently, we received news that as they have been ministering to Muslims, a couple of people they have been working with have come to faith in Jesus Christ, and that is something we celebrate! We are super excited about that. However, in their context, this means that these new Christians are essentially risking their lives to follow Christ. Converting in that context is a very dangerous thing.
We ask for your prayers for our missionaries out there, that they would continue faithfully sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Also, pray for the new converts, that God would strengthen them, encourage them, and give them all the boldness to live out their faith, even in the midst of the danger they are facing. Let's be praying for them this week.
If you would like to support the ministry of Cross Connection Church, there are a couple of different ways you can give. As we transition back to our worship team with a song, the first way you can give and support the ministry is simply by using your phones. If you have them out, text the number 84321 with any amount, and it will walk you through the steps to give right there.
Second, you can go to our website, give.lifeinconnection.com, and you can give through our giving portal, which is safe and secure. Third, you can always mail in your tithe or offering to our church address: 1675 Seven Oaks Road, Escondido, California. Of course, we are meeting live at 10:30 on Sundays.
In person, in the sanctuary, we do invite you to come and enjoy our in-person service as well. With that, let's go ahead and worship the Lord with our giving and get back to worship. God bless you.
Were creation suddenly articulate with a thousand tongues to lift one cry, then from north to south and east to west, we'd hear Christ be magnified. Were the whole earth echoing His eminence, His name would burst from sea and sky. From rivers to the tops, we'd hear Christ be magnified.
Oh, Christ, magnified! The altar of my life, every creature finds itself a melody. Every human heart will see Christ be magnified.
Be lifted high. I won't bow down to idols; I'll stand strong and worship You. If it puts me in the fire, I'll rejoice because You're there too. I won't be ruled by my feelings; I'll hold fast to what is true. If the cross brings transformation, then I'll be crucified with You, because death is just a door into resurrection. If I join You in Your sufferings, then I'll join You when You rise.
My heart will still be singing; my song will be the same. Christ, be magnified. Oh, Christ, be magnified from the altar of my life. Yes, Lord, be magnified. I ask God, that is our prayer, Lord, that is.
Our heart, Lord, is that You would be made larger in our minds and in our eyes. Lord God, we serve a powerful God. Forgive us, Lord, when we forget that and when we make You too small in our eyes. We worship You, Christ. Would You speak to us in Your Word now, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.
It has been said that life is better in uninteresting times. I'm not sure if that is true; it seems like it could be, though. However, we have not lived in uninteresting times for a very long time. Think about the upheavals we've experienced over the last 25 years: a presidential scandal followed by an impeachment and then a censure of the sitting president in 1998, a tumultuous presidential campaign followed by ballot issues. Do you remember hanging and pregnant chads in Florida? Ultimately, that was put to rest by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000.
Then came the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil in September of 2001, followed by U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We faced the subprime mortgage crisis and the market crash in 2008 and 2009, followed by the Great Recession, as they call it. We witnessed the unlikely presidency of Donald Trump, culminating with all the craziness of COVID-19 and the chaos that has come after that. We are still in that cycle of chaos. We have political chaos, market chaos, racial chaos, and global chaos. There are issues in Asia and problems once again in the Middle East.
This last week, we are most certainly in interesting times. It might be possible that life would be a little bit better in some uninteresting times. Maybe just a little bit of mundane times would be great, but it's hard to imagine uninteresting times. Prior to everything we have been experiencing in the last 25 years, there were problems in the economy and in world politics in the 1970s. Some of you probably lived through that; that was before my time. Then there was the tumult of the 1960s, with political assassinations and Cold War geopolitics.
Racial tensions and violence have marked various periods in history. The Vietnam War, for instance, was preceded by the Red Scare in the 1950s, the rise of communism, and the Korean War in the 1940s. Of course, World War II is also a significant event in this timeline. Is there really ever a time that is uninteresting? It doesn't seem so, because we live, as I have said many times before, in a broken and fallen world. We inhabit a world affected by sin, a world that experiences both natural and moral evils, and a world that is in desperate need of restoration.
In , the Apostle Paul states that the whole of creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Currently, we, as individuals, as a society, and as a church, are all trying to reorient ourselves back towards some feeling of regularity and normalcy in life. We are revisiting familiar themes here at Cross Connection Church that relate to our vision as a church. Over the last five weeks, I have been sharing what our vision is all about. For those of you who have been a part of Cross Connection Church for a while, this may be review, but reviews are sometimes important, especially right before a test.
Some of you might be in that review period right now, as finals are coming up. In fact, I have a couple of finals happening just this next week. Oftentimes, just before the final, the professor will provide a review sheet, saying, "Here are some of the things that you need to know for the final. Be prepared to answer questions on this, and be ready to write an essay on that." I believe we are in a time of testing and trial. Some people think that this is a final time of trust testing. We don't really know; we'll just have to wait and see. However, you need to be prepared because there are some things that you will be tested on as we move forward.
We were created for connection, and that will be on the final. God made us to live life in connection with Him; that is the vertical relationship He created for us. He also designed us to live life in connection with one another on a horizontal level. I believe we even see this in the actual makeup of who we are at an ontological level of being. The way we are made up includes a soul—that's the real you—where your intellect, emotion, and will reside.
But your soul can't really do much if it's not animated by the body and then a spirit. The real you, your soul, connects with God at the spirit level and with others in this world at the body level. At the very level of being, we have this understanding that we were made to live in connection with God and in connection with one another.
However, though we were created for connection with God and one another, we lost that connection through rebellious disobedience, through sin in the fall in . We are born separated from God and divided from one another. Despite this separation, we deeply desire to be connected with God and one another.
The biblical gospel, the good news about Jesus, is the story of how God set out to bring us back into connection with Him and with one another. Jesus is the mediator of this reconciliation; He is also the means by which this reconciliation is possible. Because Jesus, in His body on the cross, makes connection with God and one another possible again. Through His death on the cross, Jesus has defeated sin and death.
I have quoted the passage many times before, but it's necessary and important to this whole story to go back to a well-read passage in my Bible, in , beginning at verse 14. The Apostle Paul writes, "For He, Jesus, Himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.
And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
We are connected to God now. Therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building...
Being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. We've covered all of this in our previous five messages, and we've come to the point at which I was sharing with you last week that we are called to carry this good news to the world.
Our vision, as you know well if you are a part of Cross Connection Church, is life in connection with God, with one another, and with the world through Jesus. Jesus told His early followers in Mark's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 15, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." He commissioned His followers to make disciples of all nations in , verse 19, what is called the Great Commission. If you are a believer in and a follower of Jesus, then you are called and commissioned by Him to share the good news of life in connection with Him and with one another, with this world.
We are called to share this good news, the good story, the good news of the gospel. A lot of times, the idea of sharing the gospel, what Christians have for a very long time called evangelism, can frighten us. But it doesn't have to, because sharing the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is just like sharing with someone about the really good restaurant you ate at last week, or your favorite author, or your favorite recipe.
However, I know that it still makes some of us a little anxious when we start to talk about sharing our faith and about evangelism. In fact, at the end of the service here in our sanctuary this last Sunday, I prayed for all of those who were gathered that we would find ourselves in situations this week where we could not ignore the opportunities that God would give us to share the gospel. I'm sure that prayer was probably fulfilled for a number of people, but that kind of stuff makes us a little anxious.
What I want to do today is give you some practical tips from Jesus about sharing the good news with others. This will be found in one of the great stories of Scripture, where Jesus brought light to someone who was in darkness. Early in the story of John's Gospel, we read that Jesus had been down in Jerusalem and in the area around Jerusalem called...
Judea, and then he was departing to go back to Galilee. On his way from Jerusalem, which is in the southern part of the nation of Israel, back to Galilee, where his main home base was, the Scriptures say that he needed to go through Samaria. We read this in the Gospel of John, chapter 4, beginning at verse 5.
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 of the day, or noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink," for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Now, before I go any further with this story—and for some of you, you've probably read and the story of the woman at the well in Samaria—there are some key things to consider even at this initial stage in the text. First, Jesus sought out people who were in need. He went to where needy people were. We've considered so many times that Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost. I've shared that quite a bit even over the last five weeks. Going back to Palm Sunday, I shared from the story of Zacchaeus, where that verse is found in .
So many times, we go back to that passage where we read that Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost, and he went to where lost people would be. We are surrounded by lost people who are in need. However, one of the challenges we face, because of tribalistic tendencies—which I spoke a little bit about last week—is that we have a tendency to avoid lost people who are in need. The Jews in Jesus's day did the very same thing; they weren't much different than we are.
Most Jews traveling from Galilee in the northern part of Israel to Jerusalem, which a faithful Jew was required to do three times a year—first at Passover, then at Pentecost, and then during the fall season of feasts—would not go through Samaria. They would cut over to what we know as...
Modern-day Jordan is located on the east side of the Jordan River. The Jews would bypass Samaria; they would avoid it because the Samaritans were an ethnic minority that the Jews did not like. My wife and I love to visit Santa Barbara; in fact, we're planning on visiting there in just a couple of weeks. However, I will do just about anything to avoid driving through Los Angeles. Maybe you can relate to that. The Jews basically did the same thing; they went out of their way to avoid Samaria.
But not Jesus. Jesus left Judea, where Jerusalem was, and departed to go back up to the north to Galilee. The Scriptures say in that He needed to go through Samaria. Jesus went to where lost and needy people were to seek and to save that which is lost, because that was His purpose in coming to the world.
We have a very simple application: if you want to fulfill Jesus's commission, He says in , "Go and preach the gospel to every creature." He also says in , "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations." If you want to be faithful to the commission of Jesus, stop avoiding lost people.
The second thing to consider from this text is that Jesus interacted with lost people even when He was tired and hungry. The first few verses in tell us that Jesus was tired and thirsty, and His disciples had gone into the town of Sychar to find food. He was probably hungry in addition to being thirsty and tired. Jesus interacted with lost people even when He was in that state.
A better way to say it is that Jesus didn't look for excuses to avoid talking with people about the gospel or to avoid seeking out lost people. The fact is that many times we are those who are pretty excuse-prone. We have all kinds of excuses for why we didn't take that opportunity to talk to someone or why we didn't step out of our comfort zone to share with that person. We might say, "I'm busy," "I'm tired," "I have somewhere I need to go right now," or "I don't know what to say." We might worry that they will ask a question we don't know the answer to. Some people even say, "I'm not an evangelist; God hasn't gifted me in that way." But we need to stop avoiding lost people.
Stop making dumb excuses for not engaging with lost people. Jesus would interact with those who were in need. He looked for those people, even when He was tired, hungry, or thirsty. He didn't make up excuses.
The third thing we find in those initial words from is that Jesus was willing to step out of His comfort zone to interact with people who might be considered outsiders. He was in the region of Samaria, a place that most Jews would not go, and He interacted with a person that most people would not engage with. The person Jesus interacts with in the story had several strikes against her.
First, she was a woman. During this period of time and in this place, in Middle Eastern culture—even still today—the idea of interacting with a woman who is not your wife or part of your direct family was considered out of bounds. That is the first strike against this woman.
The second strike against her is that no Jewish man in the first century, especially a rabbi, would have any dealings with a Samaritan woman. Jews hated Samaritans and had no dealings with them.
The third thing we see as we go through this text is that this Samaritan woman was likely a moral outcast. The fact that she comes to the well in the middle of the day, rather than during the cooler parts of the morning or evening, indicates that she was probably trying to avoid the normal gathering of women who would be at the well.
So, she is a Samaritan, she is a woman, and she is a moral outcast. However, if you are going to fulfill the commission that Jesus has given us—to go and preach the gospel to every creature and to make disciples of all nations—you need to be willing to step outside of your comfort zone.
I'm not going to lie to you; that isn't always easy. It's not always easy to interact with lost people. But I can promise you this: if you stop avoiding lost people and are willing to step out of your comfort zone, God will enable and empower you by His Holy Spirit to find and share with lost people.
God makes an audacious promise to you, and that’s exactly what He says He will do. God does not command what He does not also enable. He commands us to preach the gospel, to go and preach the gospel to every creature, and to make disciples of all nations. He will enable us to do what He has commanded us to do. These were the very last words that Jesus shared with His followers before He ascended into heaven. In , Jesus says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
So, Jesus is at a well in Samaria on a hot day. He is tired and hungry when a Samaritan woman shows up to get water. This Samaritan woman is probably a moral outcast, and He says to her, "Can you give me a drink?"
Quick side note before we continue in the text: evangelism is really, at its base, about persuasion. We are going to people who don't believe as we believe, who don't see as we see, and who don't have the same vision or understanding as we do. We are trying to encourage them, through the message that we bring, to be persuaded to believe as we believe. So, evangelism is about persuasion, and according to persuasion experts, the first rule of persuasion is reciprocity.
Now, I'm not going to go in-depth on what reciprocity is, but it’s one of those ideas that if you do a favor for me, then I feel inclined to do a favor for you. I believe that Jesus, in this passage, is employing this rule of persuasion simply by asking for a drink. He is also starting a conversation with this woman, and she responds. We read in , beginning in verse 9, "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.'"
Now, most of us might be completely shut down by that interaction with this woman. This is the first-century equivalent of saying, "You shouldn't be talking to me. Don't you know that you have crossed a cultural line? You've crossed a barrier." There was a lot of long-standing tension between Jews and Samaritans.
Ethnic, cultural, and political issues divided Jews from Samaritans for literally hundreds of years—about 800 years. The Jews hated Samaritans, and the Samaritans didn't care much for Jews either. However, note that Jesus was not distracted by political drama. Let me say that again because this is really important, especially at this moment that we find ourselves in here in the United States and in the West in general: Jesus was not distracted by political drama.
As this woman throws something out there, kind of inciting the political drama, He doesn't take the bait. So, don't be trolled into worthless, divisive, and unnecessary conversations. A lot of the discussions we find ourselves getting involved in can quickly spiral down into divisive arguments. Don't get bogged down in things that have no real eternal value. Arguments over politics, strange theological discussions, and preferences are rarely worthwhile.
It's really important not to be distracted or drawn into debates about worthless things. This can be a hard one for us, but if you're going to fulfill the command to go and preach the gospel to every creature and to fulfill the commission to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, then we have to do our best not to be distracted or drawn into debates about worthless things. There are many worthless things that can distract us.
Jesus wasn't distracted by political drama, and we should do our best, as enabled by the Spirit of God, not to be drawn into that either. Instead, in this passage and in many of the interactions we see Him in—especially in the Gospel of John, which contains these private conversations with Jesus, such as with the woman at the well, Nicodemus in , the lame man in , and the man born blind in —Jesus zeroes in directly on the issue. He focuses on what is really important and reveals to the woman at the well that she is ignorant of two things that He brings out.
Look at . Jesus answered and...
He said to her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman was ignorant of two critical things: the gift of God and the giver of the gift. Here in this passage, Jesus says to her, "If you knew these two things, then you would realize that I have what you actually want. If you knew who I was, then you would ask me for this thing that you truly desire, and I would freely give it to you."
He continues, "If you knew the gift of God." The Samaritans were a very religious and spiritual people. In fact, like many people you will interact with, they were formerly religious but now claim to be spiritual but not religious. The Samaritans were aimlessly worshipping in the wrong way and ultimately missing the point. This is similar to many people you will encounter, whether in the office building where you work, on the construction site, or in the classroom. We interact with people who are spiritual and religious or spiritual but not religious, and they are often focused on a multitude of things that will not bring them closer to their true desires.
Jesus says, "If you knew who it is that is speaking to you, if you knew the gift of God, then you would ask him." He suggests to this woman that he might be more important than she realizes. This is true for most of the people we will interact with as well. They have ideas and opinions about who Jesus is, but they probably do not realize who he actually is. He says, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that you are speaking to, you would have asked him."
Though Jesus was asking her for a drink, he hints that he might have what she really needs more than she has what he needs. This illustrates another rule of persuasion. The first rule of persuasion has to do with reciprocity, while the second rule involves scarcity. Jesus is introducing scarcity into this situation by saying, "I have something that you need. I have something that you want." When I tell people that they were created for something more than they are currently experiencing, I emphasize that they were created for life in connection with God.
One another, but they're not experiencing that. When Jesus says, "I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly," these are issues of scarcity we are introducing into the conversation. You're missing out on what it is that you really need or what it is that you really desire. This causes people to start to think, "Well, am I missing out? What am I missing out on? What am I searching for? What is it that I really want?" These are all really good questions.
So, Jesus throws some scarcity into the conversation. You were made for connection, and you're not experiencing it. That introduces some scarcity to it. The final thing that Jesus hints at here is that this gift is what this woman really needs. If you knew who I was, you would ask me, and I would give you living water. He tells her explicitly what it is that she wants that He has.
The woman responds in . She says to Him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?"
In this conversation, Jesus has sown some seeds to trigger deeper talk with this woman. He has sown what I would call seeds of inquiry to try and get her to ask more questions and figure out the answers to two questions: Who is Jesus, and what is the gift of God? She takes the bait and says to Him, "Well, you've told me about this living water, but you've just asked me for a drink. You have nothing to draw with, and this well is deep. So where are you going to get this living water?"
She assumes Jesus's limitations because she believes she knows exactly what He is saying. "Where then do you get this living water?" she asks. "Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well?" Again, Jesus told her that she was ignorant of the gift of God, which she assumes is purely material, and that she was ignorant of His true identity. She's trying to sort all of that out.
He's having this evangelistic conversation with her. What is the gift? Where does it come from? Where do you get it? These are the things that are going around in her head. Then she asks Him, "Are you greater than the patriarch Jacob, our father Jacob?" Both the Jews and the Samaritans looked back to some common ancestors, names like...
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were common to both Jews and Samaritans. The woman asks, "Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well centuries, even millennia, before?" Jesus's aim in this conversation is to reveal the woman's need, her problem, and then to reveal the solution to that problem. He does this by talking to her about the gift and the giver.
In , Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water in this well will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up unto everlasting life." The gift that Jesus is speaking about is not material; it is not simply a physical thing like water or bread. It is not water drawn from an earthly well. If you seek after things of this world—earthly water, earthly food—then you will ultimately not be satisfied. However, if you drink of Christ and what He gives, you will be fully satisfied. Not only will you be fully satisfied in this life, but you will also be fully satisfied into everlasting life. Furthermore, you will be satisfied in such a way that you become a source of life-giving satisfaction for others, as you can share this living water with them.
As the woman inquires of Jesus, He clearly communicates to her what the gift of God is. He is not trying to hide anything. He tells her that she is ignorant of the gift of God and the giver of the gift. He wants her to come to an understanding of what the gift of God is and who He really is. As He communicates, He explicitly tells her what the gift of God is.
The woman responds in verse 15, saying, "Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor have to come out to this well to draw water again." What Jesus offers sounds very good to this woman. He had previously said, "If you knew the gift of God, you would have asked for it, and if you asked for it, I would give it to you." At this point, she has begun to understand at least a little bit of what the gift is, and so she asks for it. However, Jesus does not immediately give it to her.
He said, "If you knew the gift of God and also the one who is speaking to you, then you would ask, and he would give you." You've got to know the gift, but you've also got to know the giver before you can receive the gift that he gives. Jesus has revealed something about this gift, though not fully. She doesn't understand what living water is entirely, but she knows that she wants what Jesus is talking about.
Now, Jesus needs to reveal not just the gift but also who he really is. Remember, she has now asked him a question: "Are you greater than Jacob?" So how does Jesus reveal his true identity? I love this. Look at verse 16 of . Jesus said to her, "Go and call your husband and come here." This is kind of a strange response. She is starting to realize that she wants this gift that he's talking about, and she's now beginning to look into who this man is that she is talking to.
When she asks, "Are you greater than our father Jacob?" he responds, "Go and get your husband, and then come here." The woman answered in verse 17, "I have no husband." She has seemed playful up to this point and pretty talkative, but now all of a sudden, she gets quiet quickly. He says, "Go and get your husband and then come back out here," and she replies, "I have no husband."
Then Jesus said to her in verse 17 again, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one that you are now with is not your husband. In that, you have spoken truly." This moment is a little awkward. In observing this conversation, the interplay between Jesus and this woman at the well is indeed a bit uncomfortable.
However, we need to recognize this really important point: don't be afraid to offend. The message that we have, in some respects, is offensive. Before a person can experience the saving grace and forgiveness of Christ, they have to acknowledge their lostness and their sin. Jesus's response to this woman reveals that he is something more than just a Jewish man at a well on a hot day. He says to her, "Well, you're right; you don't have a husband. You've had five husbands, and the man that you're with right now is not your husband." She starts to realize that there’s more to this conversation than she initially thought.
There is something different about the man she is talking to. In , the woman says to Him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet." Jesus tells her that she is ignorant of the gift of God, and He begins to reveal to her what that gift is: living water that carries one into everlasting life. He also tells her that she is ignorant of the giver of the gift—His true identity. This is exactly what He is beginning to do: reveal to her who He truly is.
When Jesus says to her, "You're right; you don't have a husband. You've had five husbands, and the man you are with right now is not your husband," she responds, "I think you might be something more than I thought you were. I think you might be a prophet." Now, she gives Him a kind of prophet's test or her own personal test to try and figure out who Jesus is. She says this in : "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain." The Samaritans worshiped in that area called Samaria, near a mountaintop called Gerizim, while the children of Israel worshiped in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah or Mount Zion, at the temple.
She continues, "You Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." She turns to Jesus, essentially asking Him to sort this out for them: "Who is right?" Jesus responds in verse 21, "Woman, believe me." This is important. He continues, "The hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. 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 then says to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things." Note this in verse 26: Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
The interesting thing is that when you look at this text in the original language, which was written in Greek, verse 26 literally reads, "I am is speaking to you." If you've been around the Bible for a while and have read from the book of Genesis through Exodus, you know that in , there is a very important moment where Moses asks God who is speaking to him.
A burning bush. Who am I going to tell my countrymen, the Jewish people in Egypt, sent me when I go down there and say, "The God of our fathers has sent me"? God says, "I am who I am." Tell them that "I am" has sent you.
Jesus here is mirroring those exact same words. He says, "I am" is speaking to you. This is in response to the question of the woman when she says to Him, "We know that the Christ, when He comes, is going to reveal all things." Jesus responds, "I am" is speaking to you. "I am the Christ" is exactly what He is saying in this passage.
He has now revealed to her the gift and the giver. The gift is living water, which satisfies eternally, and now the giver of the gift, His true nature, is revealed. "I am" is speaking with you.
Notice the woman's response in , beginning at verse 28. The woman left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men of the city, "Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did. Could this be the Christ?" Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
The woman left her water pot. I guess that is an indication that she found what she had been looking for. She became an evangelist immediately after she discovered the gift of God and the giver of the gift. She apparently received this living water from Jesus, left her water pot, and went into the city.
She became an instant evangelist, saying to the people, "Come and see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
Don't be shy about sharing with others what you have found in Jesus. This is really important. If you have discovered through the gospel this good news about the gift of life—life more abundantly, everlasting life, living water, the bread of life—go through whatever metaphor you want to use: the path of life, the gate, the door.
All these different metaphors in Scripture point to the same truth. If you have discovered in Jesus that He is the one who brings connection with God and connection with one another, life everlasting, life abundantly, and you have tasted of that, don't be shy about sharing that with others.
That's what we're called to do. That's what we're commissioned to do, and that's what we, as a church, are all about.
About life in connection with God, one another, and then bringing other people into connection with God and one another as well through the Gospel. Jesus has reconciled us to God; He has made it possible for us to be at peace with God for eternity. He has given us new life forever and ever, and once we have tasted of that, we cannot be shy about sharing that good life and that good news with other people. My hope is to encourage you to do exactly this.
It's interesting; this last week, I was listening to an individual who is a psychiatrist. He is a doctor and trained as a professor at Oxford University. He was talking about how science has discovered that there are three very important things. This blew my mind as I was listening to this, and it's just coincidence that I was listening to it. He was saying that science in psychology and the social sciences have discovered that there are three very important things that humans need. They need a connection to one another, they need to connect with this world—they literally need to get out in nature and connect with the world—and they need to be connected to a body of like-minded people who are also worshiping and have the same values.
This guy is not a believer, and yet he was saying we need to be connected to one another, we need to be connected to God, and we need to be connected with the world. This is what we find when we come to the pages of Scripture. This is what we find in the Gospel, and this is what we as a church are really wanting to share with other people—the people that we interact with on a regular basis: our neighbors, our family members, our co-workers, our friends. We want to share with them that the way we are going to experience life and that more abundantly, what we truly desire, is to be brought into connection with God, to be brought into connection with one another, and to be connected with all that God has made in this world.
That is where we truly experience what God made us for, where we fulfill the purpose for which we were made. So listen, if you are a believer and have trusted Jesus Christ, then don't be shy about sharing this good news with others of what you've found in Jesus.
Father God, I pray that you would cause these things to be in our hearts, and not just in our hearts and in our minds, but Lord, that they would be on our lips and we would share them with other people. I pray for anyone who is watching this right now that you would give us those opportunities this week that we have a hard time getting out of, that we cannot deny. When we have those opportunities, may we share the good news of who You are and what You've done in our lives with them, so that they might know this life.
Life more abundantly is what we have with You and in You. We ask that they might experience connection with You, with one another, and with all that You have made. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Sing a new song to Him who sits on Heaven's mercy seat. Holy, holy, holy is the praise to the King of Kings. Clothed in rainbows of living colors.
With all creations of Your name, we're filled with wonder. I struck wonder at the mention of Your name. Jesus is my everyday.
Is the Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come. With all creation, I sing praise to the King of Kings.
Father God, thank you for the opportunity that we've had today to go through the Scriptures and to consider this passage of Scripture with Jesus and the woman at the well in . Lord, thank you for the opportunity to worship you. You have made us to be worshipers; you've made us to experience connection with you and with one another. I pray that we would really begin to experience that more fully, and not only experience it but express it in our lives and extend it to other people.
God, do a work in and through your church. Pour out your Spirit for such a time as this, as we are living in a culture that is in desperate need of your grace, your forgiveness, and the reconciliation that is only found in you. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. God bless. Have a wonderful day.
Hi, my name's Daniel. Welcome to church! By the way, have you ever had a Red Bull? I never had a Red Bull before, but I had a Red Bull last night, and I really like Red Bull.
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