“Lessons From The Well" • 6.16.19
• Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- When we last left Jesus, He was
sitting by a well in a town that a Jewish man didn't sit by a well, talking
with a person that a Jewish man didn't talk to.
- This unnamed woman has come out
to draw water at an unusual time. She is an outcast among an outcast society
and is having the conversation of a lifetime.
- Jesus, in short order, has
graciously invited her to partake of living water that would flow from within
her, which would issue in satisfaction to her soul.
- She initially scoffs until the
Lord reveals both His knowledge of her situation, as well as His identity to
her. He is the Messiah! That is where we are. Let's pick it up in verse 27.
Text
• John 4:27 : "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?'" : At the very moment when Jesus
revealed Himself as the Messiah of Israel, the disciples come trudging up with
the food they had purchased for the Lord in town!
- This woman is on the cusp of a
decision and here come 12 strange Jewish men to interrupt this divine
appointment! How many of you have had that kind of moment?
- You are sharing Christ with a
person and another buddy shows up at the very moment of potential conversion
with an offhanded comment! This has happened too many times to count!
- The disciples were walking up,
taking note of what was taking place, their eyes telling the story of their
amazement as the picture became clearer. He was talking with a woman!
- As we have mentioned, this was a
cultural unicorn! What was happening, never happened!
- Incidently, remember that Jesus
needed to go through Samaria. Obviously, the Father had an appointment with
this woman and this town. But that wasn't all that was being accomplished.
- Jesus needed to go through
Samaria because the disciples needed to learn about the Father's heart for
people that they were extremely prejudiced against.
- Being with Jesus, being His
disciple, does not mean that our natural prejudices are just wiped away. They
have to be chiseled away, scraped off of our souls by the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus shows us by His example
that He loves the World and it is our duty to cooperate with His Spirit in allowing
that heart to be replicated in us.
- If I call myself a Christian,
there can be no racial, cultural or socio-economic divide that He cannot cross!
He loves those I would naturally hate and won't allow that hate to remain in
me!
- The disciples knew why Jesus was
talking with this woman and they knew what she sought in Jesus. There was no
reason to say anything.
- They were experiencing an example
that would increase in clarity over their lifetime. They would be having many
conversations like this in the near future!
- Speaking of the woman, what
happened with her? Have a look at verse 28.
• John 4:28-30 : "The woman
then left her waterpot, 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." : The
woman just left in a hurry, her waterpot sitting right there next to Jesus!
- Remember that the well that the
woman drew from came to represent satisfaction in the world. Jesus offered this
woman living water, a life that is satisfied in Him!
- We don't know how much she drank,
but one has to say that the moment she did, she looked at that old water pot,
once supremely valuable, as worthless in the light of her present possession!
- Those that drink from the water
that Christ offers will feel the same way! When Christ satisfies you, no other
fount will carry the same appeal!
- Psalm 87 is a beautiful,
complementary picture to this section of scripture. It details the Lord's heart
for the nations, who will one day be registered by God as having been
"born" in Zion.
• Psalm 87:7 : "Both the singers and the players on
instruments say, 'All my springs are in you.'" : A child of God sings this very song!
Everything that satisfies me has it's source in You! Beside it being completely
unnecessary, it's now an encumbrance to her new mission!
- This is the kind of work I'd love
to see more of: A person is doing something, encounters Jesus, and leaves their
water pot at His feet, while they run to tell their friends about Jesus!
- We need to pray for these kind of
people and that kind of response in them, a signal of a Holy Spirit inspired
revival! Look at the transformation that took place immediately.
- She had gone to a great deal of
trouble to avoid people. She initially came to this well via the side streets
and backroads. She leaves directly from Jesus to the main thoroughfare of the
city!
- Generally, she wouldn't talk with
anyone, but here, she calls out to the men of the city, not to get anything
from them, but solely to make them aware of the Lord Jesus!
- Her voice is urgent. She is
commanding them! She wants these men to come now to see this Man with complete
knowledge of her life! He knows everything that she ever did!
- Understand what she means by
this: He knows everything about her and He STILL offered her living water!
That's not what religion does! Only Jesus, only the Divine One, does that!
- The NKJV doesn't hold up to her
actual words. She doesn't say "Could this be the Christ?" as if it
were a question to her. I much prefer the KJV which says, "Is this not the
Christ!?"
- Who else could so intimately know
what He knows and be so infinitely good?
- Jesus told her that He was the
Messiah and she went and told others where to find Him! That's been the
"formula" for all generations and is still the announcement we make
today!
- In turn, these Samaritan men came
to meet Jesus at the well based on her simple testimony alone. "Come,
see." They came and they are about to see, but first the disciples need
help. Verse 31.
• John 4:31-34 : "In the meantime His disciples urged
Him, saying, 'Rabbi, eat.' But He said to them, 'I have food to
eat of which you do not know.' Therefore the
disciples said to one another, 'Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?' Jesus said to them, 'My food is to
do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work." : You can't discredit the disciples for being insensitive. They
cared for the Lord's physical needs and they kept urging Him to eat. They
didn't really need to worry.
- Jesus had food to eat that they knew nothing
about. It was a secret store that He carried.
- Of course, he'll explain, but the disciples
are as clueless as Nicodemus and the Woman had been! As He had with water and
birth before, He now uses food as His teaching metaphor.
-
Food drives us and provides energy throughout our day. Really good food
satisfies and increases our joy and happiness. What food does for us
physically, service to God does spiritually!
- The Lord was sustained by doing His Father's
will! It was not simply knowing the Father's will, but performing it. To bring
it to pass. To focus in upon it and to see it completed, perfected.
- Serving His Father's interests superceded His
own physical needs to the degree that it was as good as any physical meal He
would have taken in!
- Jesus did not allow His physical needs to
dictate His life's movements. That wasn't the foremost matter of importance to
Him.
- Indeed, for all of us who are passionate
about something, we'll completely forget about eating because of our joyful
engagement in said passion!
- Jesus was more passionate about God's will
and work than He was for this particular meal!
- Even when the Devil tempted Him in the
wilderness, after 40 days of not eating or drinking, the Lord replied to the
Temptor's words by saying that man should not live by bread alone!
- Too often, we are slaves to our own physical
needs and such an attitude can cripple the saint that seeks to follow the Lord.
That wasn't the case with the Lord!
- In fact, the Lord Jesus would have looked at
sleep, food and the like, as interruptions to His true joy and fulfilment! He was oriented toward spiritual and
heavenly duty.
- Jesus was a real man that was directed, led
and motivated by the Holy Spirit.
- I pray that each of us would learn what it
means to have the food of the Father's will! We all should ask for this
experience. Jesus gives them an illustration beginning in verse 35.
• John 4:35-38 : " 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! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal
life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice
together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not
labored; others have labored, and you have entered into
their labors.'" : Verse 35 comes out a little more
clearly in the NLT. It records the Lord's words this way: "You know the saying, ‘Four months
between planting and harvest.’"
- This appears to be an euphemism equal to our
saying, "Chill out!" "Relax!" "Don't be so rigid or
hard on yourself!"
- "Honey, we've got to get going right now
or we'll be late!" "There are still four months and then comes the
harvest!" Consider the rationale of a farmer that might say this.
- He has just finished working hard to get the
seed into the ground. There are four months of germination which occurs
silently, under ground. What does he do during this time?
- Whatever work that he is doing is far less
intense than in the time of sowing or reapng! He can afford to take a day or an
afternoon off. Jesus has no such luxury!
- "Look guys, I'm telling you the solemn
truth right this minute! Lift up your eyes and you'll see that there isn't any
time to waste!" I pray that you understand the eternal truth in this
statement.
- If it was true then, think of how much more
true it is today! If it could be said that there isn't any time to waste, it
must be today in these last days!
- The field is the world and it is ripe for
harvesting! Generally, when the sun shines over wheat in a field, it appears
bright, almost as if it were white.
- When a farmer saw that, he knew it was time
to begin to reap what he had sown! It was money time! The same is true
spiritually. The time to work is now!
- The disciples needed to look up from their
physical food and see the white turbans surrounding them! It was time to put
their sickle into the ground and bring that wheat in!
- The person who reaps, who figuratively runs
out into the world that surrounds him and announces the good news, will receive
their reward, the dues paid for their work.
- We don't know exactly what those rewards will
be and we don't care! We do it because of the joy that we have received from
being forgiven! Nevertheless, there are rewards!
- Peter questioned the Lord in this regard
after the Lord revealed to the disciples that it was very hard for the rich to
enter into the Kingdom of God.
- Peter and the disciples had left everything
to follow after Jesus and this was His Lord's promise to him.
• Mark 10:29,30 : "So Jesus answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, there is
no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or
children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a
hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and
children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life." : God sees what we have given and how
we have worked from our love for Him. Nothing is forgotten!
- He will reward those that participate and
they can know that the fruits of their labors are not merely life time
achievements. They are gathering fruit for eternal life!
- It doesn't matter what part we play in that
work. There is equal joy among those that sow and those that reap in eternity! You
might sow. You might water. You might reap. You will rejoice!
- God has been sowing His Word since the
opening of history! All you need is a pair of eyes, a telescope or a
microscope.
- He has left voluminous evidence of His
presence in the heavens as well as the intricate ordered patterns of a human
being's D.N.A. Think of what He has done historically through Israel.
- He has preserved them through not one, not
two, but three complete national displacements! They exist today surrounded by
their enemies and are the strongest nation in the region!
- Presently, for Jesus, He is leaving the final
stamp of God's redemptive program. He is sowing the seed that will be His own
life, buried in the ground and raised to the heavens in plain sight of all!
- The gospel is embodied in Christ and now, the
disciples will be the first to put their sickle into the ground and harvest
souls for the Kingdom!
- The disciples have entered into the work that
began with Adam, continued in Abraham, flowed down through Jacob. Moses,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, all sowed seeds that are fulfilled in Christ!
- They all labored without seeing the harvest.
The disciples would be the first to enjoy the fruits of their labor! And guess
what: You and I get to reap from their work today!
- Have you entered into their labors? Are you
convinced that the time of harvest is now? The discples didn't have long to
wonder at His words. Their harvest was coming at them! Verse 39.
• John 4:39-41 : "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.' So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay
with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His
own word." :
- The disciples are standing there with the
food that they brought for the Lord. They have just listened to the Lord
explain the mission that drove Him. Their eyes have been trained upon Him.
- Right as Jesus was finishing His instruction,
the disciples come to look around and realize that they are surrounded by
Samaritans! We aren't told how many came out at the woman's urging.
- However many came out initially, eventually became
"many" of the Samaritans in Sychar believing in Him on the strength
of this Woman's testimony!
- "Many of the Samaritans!" The Jews
would never have believed that ANY of the Samaritans would have come to faith
and certainly not through the testimony of a Woman!?
- But that is the Kingdom of God! It is made of
outcasts, rejects and the least likely, in short the "foolish things of
the world!" It's news is spread by broken vessels and the very average!
- It is built upon the historical events of
Christ's life, but is made new or relevant by how that ancient story intersects
with our own history, our testimony.
- It's remarkable that her testimony was not
that remarkable! They knew everything that she ever did! Jesus did not perform
a miracle for her, but the miracle was that He knew her so intimately.
- The point is that letting others know of the
Lord's interaction with you may have more of an effect than you would have ever
believed! And look at the unintended circumstance.
- The Samaritans were so taken with Jesus that
they begged Him to stay with them. I can almost guarantee that this was the
only person of Jewish descent that they ever asked to stay!
- Jesus is the embodiment of holiness, but
sinners and Samaritans wanted Him to remain with them! He doesn't seem to have
ever put anyone off with His way of life! Something to think about!
- For most Jews, if you had to go through
Samaria, it would be the quickest trip possible. "Don't let the dust
settle on your feet!" Jesus stayed there an additional two days.
- Most initially came to find out about Jesus
through the Woman's testimony, but many more came to believe upon Him because
of His own word. John explains in verse 42.
• John 4:42 : "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.'" : The Samaritan woman had been
responsible for the curiosity of her countrymen, but it was Jesus that
eventually won them over.
- Listen to the progression: We have heard Him.
We listened to Him. We have paid attention to Him. That's really all I could
ever ask someone to do.
- Someone may very well be interested in why I
am a Christian. They might even find parts of my story fascinating, but that
will only keep for so long in another person's soul.
- The Samaritans took the time to listen to the
Lord themselves, to hear Him personally!
- I'd ask every person that I ever encountered
to do the same. Listen to Him. Hear Him. Pay attention to Him!
- Unlike Biblical times when you had to wait
for Him to come to your town, you have His Words recorded in every language and
tongue, in perfect clarity!
- When the Samaritans listened, they came to
know for certain that Jesus was who He said He was. The Samaritan woman knew
that this was the Christ. Now they knew it too!
- He taught them openly that He was the long
awaited Jewish Messiah! He was Jewish, but was not just for the Jews. Jesus
taught them that He was the Savior of the whole world!
- That is what they and indeed, you and I, have
come to believe in!
Conclusion
- As we close,
I say to you what Jesus says to His disciples: The time is now! The harvest is
near you! Your sickle is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the testimony of His
work in your life!
- The work that
you are entering has been done for you. All you must do is participate and
there will be reward and joy for the part that you play!
- No matter the
result, your work is eternal in nature. Whether you see a conversion or not,
eternity is becoming more relevant with every expenditure of energy and
resource!
- Perhaps,
you'll even learn what it means to say, "Who has time for food?" May
it be so in our time!
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