Deeper Than A Well
Introduction
John 4
I started out this week thinking on the subject concerning what God expects from the worship of His people. Certainly, we all know that worship has been a “hot” topic of discussion since the COVID pandemic occurred. We seem to have no “normal” when it comes to how, when, or where we worship – not to mention whether we wear a face cover or not when we worship. So, this subject is important to us, but you can be sure that it is even more important to God. After all, He is the author of worship and the recipient of worship.
When I studied chapter 4 in the Gospel of John, I was interested in what Jesus had to say about worship. How did He state that we are to declare the greatness of God by our praise, in our prayers, and through our giving?
We need to remember that the book of John places emphasis upon the Spirit of God moving in the lives of believers and in changing our hearts, directions, and purposes in their lives as well. Such is the case for the fourth chapter of John. As the incident is described here, we follow the manner in which it evolves. We observe that the story revolves around Jesus and an unidentified, immoral, unsaved Samaritan women.
John 4
Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John
2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),
3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
4 But He needed to go through Samaria.
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.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of Samaria came 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 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.
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 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?
12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 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.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
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; in that you spoke truly.”
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23 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.
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” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,
29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
31 In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
37 For in this 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 labors.”
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”
40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
41 And many more believed because of His own word.
42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
Now I want us to see some important issues from this passage. Look at …
I. Obstacles and Opinions of Worship
Jesus stated that He needed to go through Samaria, and once they were on outside of the town of Sychar in Samaria His disciples went on into town to get supplies. It was high noon, and Jesus remained at Jacob’s well.
A woman appeared at the well to draw water from the well. We need to ask why this woman was alone. It was uncommon for a woman to go to the well outside the city to get water by herself. Besides, women normally went to the well together in the morning and evening to get water for their families, never at noontime. So, why is she by herself? The truth is that this woman was not respected or trusted by the other women in Sychar, and she went at noon because she knew that no other woman would be there. We can see that this woman was rejected – you might say an outcast by the community. No other woman trusted her. She came to the well believing she would be by herself, but she was wrong. She was about to experience the greatest encounter of her entire life.
You see, this woman was immoral and was still living an immoral life as she went to the well that day. She was not accepted by the religious community either, but she was not entirely uneducated about the religious history of the Samaritan people.
As you study the woman, you see that she had an opinion on just about everything. She is quoted seven times in theses verses, and she told Jesus her opinion on racism, religion, and worship in the process of the conversation. Human nature remains the same today as it was two thousand years ago. You see, this woman confronted Jesus about Him being a Jew. In other words, she made a racist remark by bringing up the subject. Imagine you seeing a person for the first time and you say, “I see you are an Asian person.” Or maybe you would say, “I see you are black.” Or perhaps you met a black person and the first thing they say to you is, “I see you are as white as a snowflake.” How would you feel? Strange? Fearful? Awkward?
We need know that Racism is an outgrowth of one person feeling superior because of the color of your skin, or someone else feeling inferior by not being like you. How do you respond to that?
Well, let’s see what Jesus did when He was the one who was different, and the woman was part of a large community that did not like Jews. Yes, and the Jews thought they were better than the Samaritans as well. In fact, many Jews would not so much as place a foot on Samaritan soil. What did Jesus do? He asked for a drink of water from her cup. Wow! That was a bold thing for Jesus to do, but Jesus showed her that He didn’t think she was unclean, nor did He think He would be made unclean if He shared something to drink with her.
If Christian people would be Christlike to everybody around them, regardless of who they are, what they have done, the color of their skin, or the background they have, the world would be a different place.
Consider your own obstacles and opinions in life and place them in light of the Word of God this morning. Be sure that your opinions, attitudes and actions do make a difference when it comes to obedience to Christ and to be accepted in worship before God.
II. Interests and Convictions about Worship
Jesus told her that if she knew who He was, she would ask Him for eternal water. That certainly got her attention. Going out to a well some distance from the city and carrying it back to your home at least once a day and most of the time twice a day was quite a chore. If there was some way to get eternal water, water that you didn’t have to draw up from a well, she wanted to know all about it.
God will find a way to get your attention:
For Moses it was a burning bush
For the Pharaoh of Egypt, it was plagues
For David it was facing a lion and bear while defending his father’s sheep
For Simon Peter it was a net full of fish
For the Paul it was a blinding light
Whatever the method, God has the desire, the will, and the way to get your attention. He can do this anywhere, at any time and with anything He desires. The point is, He is seeking to speak to your heart, mind, and life. Because most people fumble around trying to know about God in incorrect ways, God reaches out to show you the truth about Himself and the truth about yourself.
Once her interest is triggered, Jesus tells her to go get her husband. It is at this point that she shares the shortest sentence in her entire conversation with Jesus. She said, “I don’t have a husband.” Why was her sentence so short? You see, Jesus knew her sin and she needed to face her sin as well. Jesus was bringing her face to face with her own problems, which is something she likely had forced down in the background of her life for years. She was busy judging other people and avoiding dealing with her own shortcomings.
Let’s get one thing straight today. No one can come to a conversion (to salvation through Christ) without facing conviction (the honesty about your sins). Sadly, bringing people to conviction about sin is missing in many churches today. Leaders worry that pointing out sin might cause people to go away – to leave and not come back. Many leaders and church members want something warm and fuzzy every Sunday morning. Dear friends, when you look into the mirror of God’s Word you will see yourself for what you really are. None of us likes to look in a mirror and see some terrible zit, or a 2 inch mole on the end of our nose, or hair growing out of our ears. But, you look anyway because you want to fix it. God wants to do that to your heart and soul. He brings you a place to see what you really are – not to hurt you but to help you! Sadly, many will not take a real look at the sinful ways that dwell within us.
And let me say to those who are Christians today, we are in need of dealing with our own sins, our own prejudices, and our own shortcomings. We will never be all that God wants us to be till we allow Jesus to tell us the things that need to be changes. You can be “called out” by the Lord for your sin without having a “fall out” with your Savior. But, you will never be “all in” for the Savior till you let Him “call out” what is wrong in your life.
Now, let’s look at the third thing we learn in this scripture passage.
III. Honesty and Blessings from Worship
As Jesus talked withs this woman, she said, “I know Messiah is coming.” Jesus told her that the One who speaks to you is He! Jesus said, “I am the Messiah.” That is what she needed to hear.
Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the sin-giver. Jesus is the Savior. Jesus is the answer to the questions of life. Jesus is the answer to prejudice. Jesus is the answer to loneliness. All of these were things this woman was dealing with – Jesus was her answer. Jesus is my answer and yours, too!
When this woman heard the truth about Jesus, she left her water pot and ran back to Sychar. She told the men about Jesus. In fact, she said, “I met a man who told me everything I ever did.” Now, that got the men’s attention. Just what did Jesus say to this woman. Maybe He said something that involved one of them. Listen, my friend, if Jesus starts talking a lot of people are going to be in trouble, for He knows everything you ever did. So, the men said we better go out here and see if this is really the Messiah. After all, we have never seen this woman so excited about spiritual things. We have never seen her so thrilled about dealing with her sins. Something has happened to this man. We have to see the One who could make this happen.
Listen, dear Christian, true worship of Christ will lead you to have such a glow that people will listen to your testimony. True love for Christ will cause you to admit that you are not perfect, and people will listen to honesty. A lot of people outside the kingdom and outside the church think we are a bunch of self-righteous do-gooders. When we show that we have problems, but that Jesus is the answer, they will listen to us like the people listened to the woman at Sychar. We don’t win anyone to Jesus by acting like we are better than they are!
Conclusion
The men came out and invited Jesus into the city. Many people believed on Him as Savior and Lord that day. They were Samaritans and He was a Jew, but all barriers were broken down when they saw that their sin problem could be solved through Jesus. It all began when a woman got her worship straightened out. How does God see your worship? Are you truthful with yourself about sin? Are you honest with yourself about what it cost our Lord Jesus Christ to pay the price for you to be blessed, forgiven and promised a home with Him in eternity? Do you look at people and see differences, or do you look at people and see that we are all alike – we are all sinners – and Jesus came to save all people who repent and place faith in Him.