Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/bbcsylmar/sermons/57999/john-41-30/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] and we'll pick it up right away at verse 1, but before we do, let's pray and talk to the Lord. Father, as we open up your words, I pray that your Holy Spirit would illuminate our minds and our consciences and our spirits to the truth of the Word of God. [0:18] Help us to see what you have us to learn and to know. Give us understanding. Give us wisdom. Lord, may it not just be head knowledge that we receive this morning, but may it be something that we can apply and that we want to apply. [0:32] I'm thankful for the song that we just sang, reminding how much and how desperately we need you. And it's my prayer that everybody in here would feel that way and would believe that from their heart, that we need you this morning, and so we ask you to help us, and we pray this in Jesus' name. [0:48] Amen. So Jesus is moving on from this thing with John the Baptist, which kind of covered a good bit of chapter 3 toward the end there. [1:00] He dealt with Nicodemus, and now he's going to move, and we'll see that here at the very beginning. In verse 1, When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee. [1:21] And he must needs go through Samaria. So if you know the geography, you know that Galilee is a region, not just not a town or a city or a tribe or anything, but it's a region to the north of Israel. [1:35] And Judea is the region to the south in Israel, and smack in the middle of those two is Samaria. And it's pretty well divided into those three regions. And so to get to Galilee, he needs to go through Samaria. [1:48] He's not going to Samaria as it's written in the text. That's not his goal. He's going to stop there along the way. It's a long way. But he's going to Galilee. [1:59] And the Jews don't have dealings with the Samaritans. And we'll see this here right away at the beginning. So he's cutting through Samaria. We already commented on that baptism thing back in chapter 3, so we'll move on from that. [2:13] But he needs to go through Samaria. So verse number 5, Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. [2:25] Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Now you remember in Genesis, if you read through there, you'll see that Jacob, Israel, his twelve sons, it's very common, they're moving around in the land of Canaan. [2:45] They never had that. That land was not yet given to them. From Abraham to Isaac to Jacob, he promised all of them, I'm going to give you this land and to your seat after you. But it wasn't yet realized in that day. [2:56] And so they traversed that land, and they took their herds and flocks with them. And a common thing, very common, was that they dug wells. They didn't just follow the river or stick by the streams, but it was a necessity for flocks to have water. [3:09] So digging wells was every place they went. They dug a well. If there was nothing there, they had to move on. He couldn't stay there very long. And so that was a common thing you can read about back in Genesis. And now there's one here that's called Jacob's Well. [3:22] It must have had some history to it. It went back as far as Jacob. And I might note also that it says they came near to a parcel of ground, in verse 5, that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. [3:34] It's a real estate gift to the son that he loved the most, Joseph. But it's something that Joseph never got to enjoy. Joseph, as a young man, was taken by his brothers and bound up and sold into slavery and off to Egypt. [3:47] And he didn't leave Egypt. His bones left. But Joseph himself never got that parcel of ground that Jacob gave to him. And that just reminds me to think that there may be some things in this world, in this life, that's pledged or promised to you. [4:04] But God might have another plan for you. He might have something else to you that to not to stay and to get the inheritance from your parents and to work the land and to feel obligated to do that. [4:16] Your heavenly father might have a bigger and better plan for you. And for Joseph, it was suffering and it was betrayal and loneliness and a whole lot of heartache. And then it turned into salvation and a deliverance to his own father and brethren. [4:30] And the Lord used all of that to save Jacob, Israel, and to bring that great nation out one day. But Joseph himself never got the land. So Jesus Christ is wearied in verse 6 from the journey which reveals the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, something we studied in our doctrines class. [4:50] He's God, but in a human body that gets tired and gets hungry and thirsty. It's about the sixth hour, so it's 12 noon according to the way they kept the time. [5:03] The day beginning at 6 a.m., so therefore six hours into the day is 12 noon. And in verse number 7, there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink, for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. [5:19] Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. [5:32] So, I want to give you the background here to help you to understand in case you've never been informed of this, why is it that these people in the middle of the land, the Samaritans, why is it that the Jews, north and south of them, have no dealings with them? [5:46] Why do they avoid them? Why do they despise them? Well, there's a good reason. So, take your Bible and go back to 2 Kings chapter 17. And you have to understand some of the history of this area. [6:06] First of all, after Solomon, his son Rehoboam came on the scene and he, because of the Lord, the kingdom was split from him and Jeroboam took the ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes which would be not perfectly but kind of the land of Judea to the south would have been reigned by the king of Judah and then the king of Israel as the terms come out to play who reigned over ten northern tribes reigned over Samaria and Galilee and all the tribes up there. [6:41] Now, as those ten northern tribes were far more wicked in the general sense than the king below of Judah and God sent judgment and he sent them into captivity first. [6:55] So, the Israel northern ten tribes are carried away into Assyria before the southern tribes that were in Judah. Now, in 2 Kings 17 begin in verse number 24 and take a look here. [7:10] The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Kutha and from Ava and from Hamath and from Sepharvim and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof. [7:27] These are Gentiles. Gentiles that were sent into the land where the land was evacuated for the most part from the Jews. He sent in Gentiles to live in those cities to work the land and there's a case here where they didn't know the God of the land and got themselves into trouble and so then the king sent back a priest to teach them how to observe the ways of the God of the land. [7:51] And so there's Gentiles living in the land in Samaria in the cities of Samaria and they possess that. Now I'm not going to take you through it all but the Jews come back into their land. [8:03] The Lord brings them back then from the captivity and of course they come back into their cities into their homes but there's still Gentiles there and there's an intermingling that stays and goes on in Samaria whereas they become their own looked upon as their own people Samaritans. [8:21] Remember in Luke chapter 10 when the I think it was a lawyer was I forget the wording there but he asked him the question who is my neighbor? He's willing to justify himself says who is my neighbor? [8:33] And Christ gives a story about what we call the good Samaritan. He's the most unlikely of people that would stop and help a Jew in their culture and so that's who his neighbor is the one that he despises the one that's right there next door to him he says. [8:51] So coming back to John 4 the woman has a great question how is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which I'm a woman of Samaria because the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans they're a half breed people they are not pure blood Israelites and they consider them unclean and so they despise them and when the disciples get back from their journey to get food look at verse number 27 upon this came his disciples and marveled that he talked with a woman yet no man said what seekest thou or why talkest thou with her but they wondered just the same why is he talking to her we don't do that alright so that's verse number 9 then verse 10 Jesus answered and said unto her if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water now to put yourself in her shoes this guy is probably there's probably something wrong with him you got to put you know you don't talk to each other you avoid each other Jews despise they look down upon the Samaritans and she's a woman that's coming out to the well to draw water and he actually speaks to her that's not normal and now he says well give me to drink well if you knew who [10:16] I was you would be asking me and that's just people didn't talk like that so you have to imagine that she's thinking okay and you'll see it a little bit further as this goes that she's not sure who this guy is and she's not sure if he knows what he's talking about but he offers her he says that you would have asked me to give you living water living water it's a picture here of salvation he says if thou knewest the gift of god the book of romans says that the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord there's a couple gifts in your bible in the new testament there's one called the gift of righteousness in romans chapter 5 and then there's you're saved or for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god what is that that's salvation by grace it is a gift a free gift and if you knew the gift of god you would be asking me for what i can give to you and there's a great point there is that salvation is through the lord jesus christ and it's it's it's saying give me that saith that he give me the drink thou wouldest have asked of him it's asking of him for that eternal life it's as simple as that verse 11 the woman saith unto him sir thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep from whence then hast thou that living water so she has no clue at all what he just said to her no concept of spiritual things just like the previous chapter with nicodemus how can a man be born when he is old and now this case sir i'm gonna be polite to you but come on you're gonna give me living water are you you don't even have anything to draw from with this well is deep what are you talking about she doesn't buy what he's selling her look at first corinthians chapter 2 and keep this thought in mind when it comes to trying to deal with somebody who's not saved and you want them to receive the gift of eternal life keep in mind that when you talk in spiritual terms to them and you tell them things that you understand don't expect them to understand them verse number 14 says the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned look back at verse 11 for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of god knoweth no man but the spirit of god and so you might take for granted how well you understand and know certain things because you've been saved for a while or because you've been reading your bible or you've been taught well but when you go witness to a lost person and throw some things at them and expect them to get it good chance is they're not going to get a thing unless the spirit of god's been working on them unless there's other something over their head that's been working on them the best thing and then really the only thing you have is just the word of god is just to just what does the bible say and try if that book can't get through to them and it can't open their eyes then you're definitely not going to be able to by talking you know some little avenue that seems to work for you so the woman's blind to this spiritual truth to what he's offering her living water it goes way over her head the well is deep that makes sense to her you got to use something to draw out of the well front that makes sense to her and this guy what he's saying doesn't make any sense to her verse 12 [14:16] look at this she says art thou greater than our father jacob which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle i think she's being a little sarcastic i do i think she's being sarcastic that them saying oh you think you're greater than jacob you're greater than jacob huh you're gonna give me this living water and you don't have anything to draw with it's the well's deep are you greater than jacob i don't she doesn't think he's greater than jacob she doesn't believe a thing about him yet she doesn't think he's the christ that comes later when when he talks to her about the husband thing but so far i think she's being a little snappy with him when she asked if he's thinks he's greater than her art thou greater than jacob and verse 13 jesus answered and said unto her whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again but whosoever drinketh of the water that i shall give him shall never thirst but the water that i shall give him shall be in him a water of well springing up into everlasting life imagine being that woman and hearing this for the first time hearing some stranger to offer her living water and telling her that this water is going to be forever quench your thirst she still doesn't understand what he's talking about but one thing about the lord jesus christ is he's relating something to her he's attempting to by something that she can understand you drink you thirst and you drink and you thirst again and you get another drink well i can offer you something and he'll call it living water because that's what's in the scene i'll call it living water it's something that you'll never thirst again if you drink this it'll be in you forever in you it'll spring up like a fountain like a forever flowing fountain within you so there's something eternal that comes inside of you it's the spirit of god and look at chapter let's see is that chapter seven yeah look at chapter seven verse 37 in the last day that great day of the feast jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth in me as the scripture hath said yet out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the holy ghost was not yet given so there's the there's the eternal spirit of god that dwells inside a person that believes on christ it's not literal water it's the spirit of god that's in a figure springing up into everlasting life and so this woman hears this and her response is prove it all this talk prove it to me verse 15 the woman saith unto him sir give me this water well come on then where's it at show me i think that's her attitude i don't think she's being so humble i think she's like this guy's kind of nuts he's saying some awfully weird things and okay then give me this water that i thirst not neither come hither to draw you crazy old man you i think that's how she's taking it because look at his response okay enough of this go call thy husband where did that come from go call thy husband and come hither go get your husband where did that come that's nowhere in this scene no discussion of a husband why is he telling her to go get her husband well we know why he's setting her up to reveal to her what he knows about her and it's going to [18:17] open her eyes to who he is but out of nowhere so i think she's resisting i think she's giving him smart aleck responses and he finally just says okay then let's let's talk about your husbands let's talk about the kind of lady that you really are verse 16 jesus saith unto her go call thy husband and come hither um he's what he's doing as i'm trying to insinuate is he's going to turn this conversation to to her sin and the sinner that she is while he already talked about what he can offer her and i think she's just kind of mocking it or doesn't know how to handle it now let's turn to dealing with your sin which by the way is such an important element here so verse 17 the woman answered and said i have no husband jesus said unto her thou hast well said i have no husband for thou hast had past tense had five husbands and he whom thou had or thou now hast is not thy husband in that sayest thou truly and so you can see a little thing here from the bible that having living with a man is what we call shacking up i don't know if you guys call it that here or not but that's what i've always heard it called and growing up shacking up is not a marriage he whom thou now hast is not thy husband so she's living with a man but she's not married to him but she's had five previous husbands and now the woman's going to have to acknowledge this because he's saying that you're living in fornication that's the implications from the one you're living with a man and he's not your husband and you've had five already and so her response now is sir verse 19 i perceive that thou art a prophet do you think he knows exactly what kind of condition you're living in he knows your past and he brought up this this thing here on purpose he's a stranger she would not suspect that he knew a thing about her or met her husband or her boyfriend or whatever and so he slaps her with your living sin and fornication and watch how she changes the subject just like a typical traditional sinner getting confronted with their sin doesn't want to deal with it before the lord jesus christ and she says i perceive that thou art a prophet our fathers worshipped in this she wants to talk religion now now she wants to get religious because he called her out and now her number's been called so our fathers worshipped in this mountain and you say that in jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship now it's getting probably too close for comfort here so she's going to turn the subject and talk about something and kind of what she thinks is an inconsistency or a contradiction our fathers worshipped in this mountain so what's wrong with it she's all about this is jacob's well and jacob of course the father of those 12 sons to make the 12 tribes of israel and so she's identifying with jacob from the beginning she's claiming that they worshiped there and they did they did offer the built altars and offered sacrifices and she says this in verse 20 our fathers worshipped in this mountain and ye say ye meaning jews that have no dealings with the samaritans ye say that in jerusalem's a place where men ought to worship correction no it's not the jews it's the bible that says that it's god that said that do you remember reading this is moses not not the jews moses gave the law and said god said i will place my name there in a specific place and when it turned out to be jerusalem and that's what the word of god said it isn't a matter of what the jews say it's not we do this and you do that and in that sense it sounds like what's the problem you guys say this and we say that no the the answer the that's [22:18] why you need an authority is what i'm getting at the authority of the word of god the book establishes truth who cares what anybody else says what any religion says just just wipe it all away and go to the word of god and find out what did god say and then we'll follow that that's what we'll obey so she's off she's very much off assuming that it's the jews that say this but the samaritans say this but rather know the important thing is god said it the presence of god was associated with a place in the old testament with a city where a temple was built but that's going to change notice what his answer is verse 21 jesus saith unto her woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at jerusalem worship the father so jerusalem is about to be destroyed in a few short years but more than that the presence of god is no longer going to be associated with a place with a city or a temple look at first corinthians again come back there where we just were a little bit ago look at chapter 3 this time and for this age and today the presence of god is associated not with a place but with a people with a people it's not vatican city it's not a church building anywhere it's not a mormon temple it's a people oh oh you know why i say that because that's what the bible says so that's why we believe that first corinthians chapter 3 verse number 16 know ye not that ye ye that's that's a pronoun for people these believers ye are the temple of god and that the spirit of god dwelleth in you if any man defile the temple of god him shall god destroy for the temple of god is holy which temple ye are now that's an odd statement isn't it so let's let's see what paul has to say about it later look at ephesians chapter 2 give a little uh little insight into the picture here that people make up a building a temple ephesians chapter 2 all the way to the end of this chapter look at verse 19 and it gives you this teaching before this that jews both jews and gentiles are made one in christ and in verse 9 now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners that would be speaking directly to gentiles but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of god and are built upon the foundation of the prophets the apostles and prophets jesus christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom also i'm sorry in whom all the building the building in whom all the building fitly framed together grow with unto an holy temple in the lord in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of god through the spirit so spiritually speaking the church makes up this body it's also likened to a building or a temple and no longer is the presence of god associated with a city over in israel but rather is associated with a temple that is of made up of people of believers that are placed into the body of christ by the holy ghost so he tells her woman believe me the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at jerusalem worship the father why is that verse 22 you worship you know not what we know what we worship for salvation of the is of the jews but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh [26:23] such to worship him it's going to be worshiping him in spirit it's not going to be in sacrifices it's not going to be slaying the throat of an animal and collecting its blood and sprinkling it upon different furniture articles of furniture or or um things that you use to just administer in the in the old school the old temple of god but no longer is it going to be physical worship and and sacrifices it's going to be spiritual uh verse number 22 i pointed this out in our doctrines class last time you worship you know not what he's just slapping her with you don't know what you're talking about you people don't know what you worship we do because we have the scriptures we have the word of god he says this we know what we worship for salvation is of the jews do you jews think you're a superior race well let's see what paul says look at romans chapter 3 is jesus being awful cocky in front of this samaritan woman say you don't know what you worship which is basically every single religion on this planet they don't know what they're worshiping but they're worshiping but christ says we know what we worship romans chapter 3 verse number one what advantage then hath the jew or what profit is there of circumcision he's kind of taking he's knocking them down in romans to make to kind of level the playing field between jews and gentiles and showing in this chapter 3 specifically that we're all under sin but before he gets to that he says what advantage then hath the jew or what profit is there of a circumcision much every way they have a huge advantage chiefly the number one advantage that they have is that because unto them were committed the oracles of god like that's a big deal i can't claim that that god gave the scriptures to my ancestors of whatever nationality i can't go back to some european stock or roots and pretend that that i am the pure line of the holy worshipers of god but the jews had that claim they absolutely had that claim god chose them and he chose nobody else and so chiefly the event the chief advantage the jews have is that god gave them his holy words they gave the scriptures to the jews these writers are jewish writers this book is a jewish book from cover to cover and if you want to get salvation christ said it's of the jews you better go to the jewish messiah to find your forgiveness of sins you can offer an animal be to on an altar you can go up to the mountains and carry a lamb up there you can build an altar with stones and sacrifice them unto god and pray and you can cut yourself like the pagan bale worshipers did you can follow all the pagan religions and all the celtic and druids and go back into all the history and find out what they did and some of the filthy filthy things that mankind did in trying to supposedly appease a god but salvations of the jews you want to get to god you better go through the jew you better go through this jewish book you better find out what that god said verse 23 again but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshiper shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him the father is actively seeking christ said that the father seeketh such to worship him now somebody else is seeking and that's the devil as a roaring [30:28] lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour and at the same token the father is seeking people to worship him mankind to know him and to worship him in spirit and in truth so how are they going to get to worship him in spirit and in truth well somebody better tell them like jesus christ sat down with a woman that no one would suspect he would have any dealings with and he gave her some truth about living water and he told her what the word of god said he told her about worshiping the father he told her about salvation somebody's going to have to tell god's seeking samaritans today he's seeking those confused religious people today who who worship in the wrong mountain and they don't know what they're worshiping and he seeks through you to bring them to his son jesus christ in verse number 24 god is a spirit and here's a doctrinal statement of the uh the nature of god that he is a spirit there's a few verses in your bible that said god is this or that and i don't have them all marked but i think i do but i don't have them written down here god is love that's one that everybody knows god is love our god is a consuming fire in hebrews that's another one god is a jealous god that's another one um and there's a list i don't have them before me god is a spirit his nature is he's a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth so in genesis chapter uh one or two the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground and before that i think it's in chapter one he says let us make man after our image because god's a spirit a spirit is not a is not flesh and blood and it's not physical in nature but he made a man after his image a likeness to him after our likeness in james it says that he made man after the similitude of god a physical representation the bible says in hebrews that jesus christ is the image of the invisible god elsewhere it says that god's invisible in colossians chapter one in verse 15 and that jesus christ is his image so god is a spirit and they that worship him it makes sense that you're going to have to worship him in spirit and so as we covered those verses earlier in first corinthians 2 you're going to have to have the spirit of god in you to be able to contact and access a spirit the spirit of god that is they that worship him i hope that's you worship him in spirit and in truth you don't necessarily worship him with your money you don't worship him with your sacrifices in that sense anymore it's not physical or tangible but it's spiritual verse 25 the woman saith unto him i know that messiahs cometh which is called christ like i know that we've all heard that all our lives when he has come he will tell us all things so this guy got religious on her and told her some things about god that she hadn't heard before and he's making some good sense too as a matter of fact everything he says is right and true it kind of goes against the way she was raised or the way she worships and the mountain and so forth and so she says well i know when this messiah i know he's going to just you know he's going to clear everything up for everybody because there's a lot of confusion doesn't that sound like a religious person today who just doesn't want to submit to the word of god says well i you know i know everybody says this and they say that and that's the stance she's taken that when he comes well he'll tell us all things he'll fix it no actually he's telling you right now [34:29] like in the moment he's telling you what you need to know and she just is missing it and says well i know that that one day in verse 26 jesus saith unto her eye that speak unto thee am he and upon this came his disciples and marveled that he talked with the woman yet no man said what seekest thou or why talkest thou with her the woman then left her water pot and went into the went her way into the city and saith to the men come see a man which told me all things that ever i did is not this the christ then went they out of the city and came unto him and now skip this next little part here as a little discussion in the meantime with his disciples but when the people come to him look at verse 39 and when the and many of the samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified he told me all things that ever i did so when the samaritans were come unto him they besought him that he would tarry with them and he bowed there two days and many more believed because of his own word and there's the woman so the reason i skipped that i wanted to stay with the context of the woman for a moment and make a point here just a side note for to whom it may concern that this woman it's already been identified that she's had five husbands and now she's currently living in fornication but when she found and she believed that this guy is something special not what i thought at first this guy is something he's the messiah and she went and told all the men and they came out to hear him they believed her and they came out to hear him and they believed on him some because of her words some because of his word and the thing i want to point out is that god uses a divorced woman amen he used a woman living in fornication and he dealt with her one on one and then allowed her to reach the entire city he didn't go into that town he didn't go after the men and the higher ups he didn't go speak to the honorable people in that town he took this lowly living in fornication the kind of person that all the baptist preachers would spit on and say no you can't serve jesus christ you're that's too late now you've crossed the line you've been divorced but not the lord jesus christ the lord jesus christ doesn't see things the way men see them today and he was very content to use that woman to reach the city and i think it's phenomenal to look at it in that light that he did not go to them he went to her and then she went to them and brought them back and on it went so we'll quit there and i'll we'll come back and pick up that part in verse 31 next week with the harvest in john 4 so let's take a breaként protrudeps and chatter 聊 y mo poor 聊 ku 様 遭 様