This morning we’re continuing in the story of the women at the well…it’s a story about a woman Jesus talked with at Jacob’s well…a 2000-year-old well located in a region called Samaria.
A great story about a nameless Samaritan woman…although we don’t know her name…we do know something of her life…a story that is recorded only in the Gospel of John.
It’s no accident that this woman just happens to be at the well…Jesus was on a divine assignment (v. 4) …He was compelled to go… the text makes an emphasis on the fact that Jesus “had to” go to see this Samarian woman.…He ‘must’ go through Samaria.
In fact John says [6] Jesus is sitting at the well waiting for her…Jesus was on His way to a divine encounter…a predestined meeting that had been scheduled millions of years in advance…if you really believe that God is sovereign…then you’ll see this as not just a circumstance that just happened…but as God’s providence.
We’ve had a couple weeks break from this series and at the expense of preaching back over those two weeks it’s important for us to see where this woman is with respect to what she has been told so far in her encounter with Jesus.
Upon arriving at the well she sees Jesus sitting beside the well resting from His walk that day…so here you have a Jewish man and a Samarian woman alone at a remote well…two unlikely people from two different and adversarial backgrounds, each one’s families who were social, religious and political enemies of one another.
In this story, Jesus’ conversation with this woman is legendary…a conversation that is the longest anyone ever had with Jesus…even longer than any recorded conversation with any of his disciples.
She is essentially a social outcast…a woman who has had five husbands and the man she is now living with is not her husband [4:18] …living in sin had ruined her life…she was living in moral and spiritual squalor.
BUT…before we pass judgment on this woman let me just say that she was no worse than any of us…certainly some sins are worse than others…murder is worse than simply hating someone…but…going back to our study of the Sermon on the Mount we know that in regard to sin they’re all the same…but notice Jesus isn’t confronting the woman’s adulterous life style.
This woman has no idea who Jesus really is and what He wanted to give her…as a result she almost passed up the most important offer of her life…the opportunity to live with God in eternity.
Yesterday I preached the funeral of my best friend…someone I’ve known since junior high school…he was the best man at my wedding…someone who may have passed up on the most important decision of his life…the opportunity to live with God in eternity.
Here’s where the uncertainty comes in…how do I know eternity to be a fact…no one has ever come back from the dead to confirm that there’s an eternity.
I’m amazed that people will readily accept ideas because they’re written in a book…example…light travels at 186,000 per second…I’ve never measured that…I don’t know that to be a fact…I only know that because I read it in a physical science book.
Electricity is the movement of electrons through a wire…I spent 30 years at Beech Aircraft…part of that time as an electrical design engineer designing circuits and components for airplanes…never saw an electron…but when I energized the circuit the electrons moved and the system began to function.
BUT when it comes to accepting eternity…people balk at the idea as a hoax…the most widely published book in the world says there’s an eternity but the same people who don’t question the speed of light or electrons through a wire will question the existence of eternity…then there’s all the other assumptions that follow that:
Is there really an afterlife? Is heaven real? Does heaven exist?
Where is heaven? Is hell real? Does hell exist?
Every person here this morning is standing on the threshold of eternity…how many millions of people every day…will miss the opportunity for eternal life when all they had to do was: to ask and to receive the gift of God! …that’s what Jesus told this woman… “If you would ask… I would give you.”
Here we see the generosity and patience of God…how Jesus tries time and time again to get people to simply just ask! …Jesus tried to talk her into asking for it… He freely offers eternal life to all…Jesus wanted to give her life, but she needed to ask him for it.
With respect to salvation…thinking that somehow God owes it to me…or I’ve somehow earned it because I’m really a good person…doesn’t meet the condition that you have to ask Him…then ‘He would have given.’
Here’s something most people never get…heavenly gifts must be asked for…God doesn’t just give out stuff—a deep theological term—gifts because He has nothing to do…everything that is necessary for the spiritual and eternal good of His people must be inquired of…and sought after.
If you would have asked Him…He would have given you…this is the law of Heaven…you do not have, because you do not ask.
In this woman we see the common response of Jesus’ offer of salvation…this woman is representative of everyone who is exposed to saving grace…it shows how slow sinners are to understand the doctrines of religion.
Talking to this woman Jesus reveals two truths about salvation…salvation is the deliverance from the effects of sin…goes back to mercy…God not treating me as I deserve to be treated…here’s what Jesus says about that:
–Salvation comes only to those who ask God for forgiveness and repent of their sin…it’s telling God I’m sorry. Salvation comes only to those who ask Jesus to be their Savior.
Though a stranger to her…Jesus has convinced her that He’s not some ordinary person she’s been having a conversation with…He’s not just some weary traveler as she first thought Him to be.
She has previously heard two extraordinary statements from Jesus;
…ONE…that He possesses some type of ‘living water’…and
…TWO…He knows about her past without ever having previously met her…she is now beginning to see this is not just some ordinary guy striking up a conversation …so she tells Jesus something about Himself:
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.”
Jesus has delicately spoken to the woman’s conscience in such a manner as to give her the opportunity to view her lifestyle of sin…while at the same time leading her to perceive that He is someone special.
25 “I know that Messiah” the one called Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
“The one called Christ” are probably not the words of the woman but are put there for the Greek readers….it’s John’s explanation of the Hebrew word Messiah… Jesus certainly didn’t need the Hebrew word “Messiah” to be explained to Him…but the wording ‘the one called Christ’ …are the words of the evangelist using Greek terminology to interpret the Hebrew word “Messiah”
Jesus is now at the end of His conversation with this woman…she has made a statement that she believes a Messiah who possess the qualities of Jesus will one day come.
Jesus makes a statement to her that says He has already come…Jesus defines Himself as the Messiah.
26 “Jesus says to her I am the one speaking to you.” \λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς Ἐγώ εἰμι, ὁ λαλῶν σοι.
Often hear people say… ‘nowhere in the Bible does Jesus ever say He is God’ … well here it is.
This is an amazing statement from Jesus…the impact of this statement is not seen in any English translation…only in the Greek does this statement fully reveal who Jesus is…here He plainly claims to be the Messiah.
In this statement Jesus’ use of the words “I am” …in the Hebrew it is a clear statement that He is the Messiah she has heard about that will someday come to earth…imagine her surprise when Jesus says, “I am the one speaking to you”
He uses the same verbiage in identifying Himself to the woman as God did to Moses when Moses asked… ‘who shall I say sent me’ in the Hebrew it reads ‘I AM who I AM has sent me
שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם ׃ אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה
“I AM” was the name by which God revealed himself to Moses (Exodus 3:15). Jesus is claiming identity with God…No doubt this woman was blown away…she came for water and ends up meeting God.
In the book of John…Jesus repeats this phrase seven times…here’s the impact of the phrase ‘I AM’ …the Jews didn’t plot against Jesus because He performed miracles…because He healed people…fed people…hung out with sinners…they killed Him because He claimed equality with God.
Probably the phrase that sealed Jesus’ doom was when He said [John 8:58] …”I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!” …to most English readers the impact of this statement is not seen…Jesus’ use of the phrase I AM (ἐγὼ εἰμί) is the most salient statement in the Bible that identifies Jesus as God.
Jesus is declaring that, I am from all eternity…I have existed before all ages…it denotes continued existence without respect to time…I am an equal with God.
This statement goes back to [1:1-2] 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
The woman’s immediate reaction
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
If you’re anything like me…you struggle at being an effective evangelist for Jesus …something I’ve prayed about for decades…read books on it…gone to training seminars, even took seminary classes in evangelism…but I fail miserably at going out and witnessing for Jesus…I’m going to be honest with you…I hate it…I know that’s terrible…but witnessing is painful for me.
An hour or two after an opportunity to share Jesus, I think, “I should have said such and such, but I didn’t think of it at the time” …so shame on me…an opportunity lost.
In this verse we see a woman who is a brand new convert…still living with a man outside of marriage…she doesn’t tell Jesus I’m going back to town and get my life in order…she knows almost no sound doctrine…she’s never taken a training course in how to share her faith…yet she effectively evangelizes her entire village.
When Jesus tells her that He is the Messiah…she gets so excited she forgets about the water…she leaves her water pot and goes back to her village to tell them about a man who has told me all things—everything—(πάντα) that I have done.
We don’t know how long the conversation between her and Jesus went on…but long enough for Jesus to reveal ‘everything’ to her about her life…and her testimony to the village is… ‘can it be this is the Christ?’
It’s interesting how John records this statement…it’s in an unusual manner…in the Greek the wording implies a negative answer…NO…this can’t be.
She goes to tell them about a man she believes to be the Messiah then ends with the wording that implies…NO this can’t be the Messiah.
The wording (μήτι) in Greek carries with it the assumption that ‘this cannot be the Christ…but something about Him indicated He was…you can’t come into contact with Jesus and not be changed.
I’m sure there was an immediate transformation…they couldn’t help but see that something was different about her…her encounter with the man whom she is telling them about had changed her life…she unflinchingly laid bare the dark secrets of her soul…carrying the message to all who would hear it.
And despite the phraseology that it might not be…her own actions and testimony heightened their interest by her admittance that this man has told me all I have ever done…what further proof do you need.
Just the religious excitement from a women who was less than religious would have produced some sort of interest…as a result, they streamed out of the city to meet Jesus…they invite Him to stay with them…something none of the Jewish cities did.
The Jews rejected the testimony of their own Scriptures…they rejected the testimony of John the Baptist…they rejected the miracles and teaching of Jesus… but here…the Samaritans accept the testimony of an adulterous woman…who suddenly has become the first apostle of Christ in Samaria.
Regardless of what any of them thought or knew about her…regardless of the woman’s standing in the eyes of her neighbors and I’m sure especially with the other wives…she was not a popular person…they were probably mean to her…but she can’t help herself. She rushes back to tell them anyway.
You have to marvel at this woman’s willingness to make her shameful life the principal evidence that would eventually lead a city to the Lord…no one can look upon this as a small thing that she did.
The account she gave was so plain and honest that they concluded He must be the Messiah…BUT…it must not be thought for a moment that her mere statement, “He told me all the things that I ever did,” would have been enough to turn out a whole city to see Jesus. Not at all.
God was clearly at work…they saw a change in this woman and it helped to convince them…it was apparent to them that something had happened…that she was no longer the woman that she had been…as a result even before they met Jesus some believed.
39 Many from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony…41(but) because of His words many more became believers.
Notice something here…The Samaritans believed Christ to be a prophet based upon the testimony of this woman…but they believed in him based upon the credit and authority of his own word.
The true progress of faith is displayed here…the pattern hasn’t changed in 2000 years…Jesus’ dialogue with the woman reveals three truths about salvation:
First the conviction
“He told me everything I have ever done” without conviction there can be no salvation…salvation comes only to those who recognize they are eternally lost.
Secondly, the invitation
Her testimony caused her neighbors to ask Jesus to stay whereby many more became believers. Salvation comes only to those who ask Jesus to be their Savior.
Finally, evidence
This is KEY…having heard Jesus they now believed and demonstrated the evidence of salvation…the woman’s testimony not only consisted of telling what she said… but a change in how she lived…that is the effect that was the proof she had been transformed…believers who live in a continuous lifestyle of sin and rebellion prove that they have not been born again [Matt. 7:22].
Salvation is evidenced by living a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
Conviction…Invitation…and Evidence…it’s the pattern God has been using for thousands of years to affirm that those who in sincerity confess Jesus as their Savior have truly been born again.