[0:00] There are a few reasons why they were scandalous for Jesus to talk to this woman. First of all, it was a Jewish male speaking to a Samaritan female.
[0:10] But secondly, she was a Samaritan who was despised by the Jews. And, partly, the following this passage, she was coming to draw walker by herself.
[0:24] And that would mean nothing, but it may suggest that she was actually shunned by the one community. You know, in other places in the Bible, women could often go together to go well together.
[0:38] But this woman draws walker by herself. And it seems to suggest that she was such an immoral woman that she was actually shunned even in her own Samaritan community.
[0:50] This woman had a bit of a recognition and for all sorts of reasons it was scandalous that Jesus was spoken for. The start of the passage of Jesus was weary.
[1:02] It's a reminder to us of the humanity that he felt thirst, that he felt bitterness. Jesus had this conversation with this woman at the world.
[1:20] And what we're going to do this morning is that I want to start at the end of the passage and to work our way back. I want to start by talking about new life in Sikr, this village.
[1:32] Read about more to the end of the passage from verse 59 onwards. There was a long line dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans.
[1:46] It was essentially about three things. There was a dispute over where God was to be worshipped. There was a dispute over how God was to be worshipped.
[1:58] There was a dispute over the extent to which people could intermite with other non-Jews. The Samaritans believed that God was to be worshipped in Mount Gerizim and Ebal.
[2:16] We take that from 2 Therony 11 verse 29. The Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entered into possess. We are to proclaim the blessings of Mount Gerizim and the curse of Ebal.
[2:30] And also from Joshua chapter 8 verse 33. These are the last places where the worship of God is mentioned. And in the Samaritans believe that the spirit of God is worshipped, not in Jerusalem.
[2:42] We also didn't accept that the whole part of scripture relating to the monarchy was actually a part of scripture. And they had also intermite with other even nations.
[2:56] And for all these reasons they were hated and despised by the Jews. We believe that the Messiah is coming, as this woman says.
[3:07] And that she believed that the Messiah is coming for the Samaritans. What makes this account all the more amazing is what happened after Jesus spoke to the woman at the well.
[3:22] Verse 42. The people in the village said, they said to the woman, that it is no longer because of what we said that we believe. For we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.
[3:37] The crosswalk had taken root in this village in an unmarkable and unraising way. And in a moment, or in the space of a day or two, all these ethnic divisions have fallen down.
[3:54] They believe that Christ, the prime Messiah was the Saviour of the whole world, not just for the Samaritans. Imagine when the man came up, the neighbours go, the school in the first place to come and say, we met another man.
[4:11] Imagine the rolling of the eyes and the winking that she said that. There must have been something about the school in this position.
[4:22] There was an urgency about it. There was a sincerity about it. There was perhaps when a desperation ago. She said, come see a man who told me all that ever I did.
[4:37] And this, the meaning of this. I'm not told. The villagers urged Jesus to stay for two days and continue his teaching.
[4:49] But I would want to. The villagers have concluded that this woman, this notorious woman, that being transformed by Jesus. There must be something in this message.
[5:03] There must be something about this man. And you see, the gospels are constantly teaching us who Jesus is, and why Jesus came.
[5:17] Jesus did come to bring him to the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit of the spirit. The gospel of John opens with Jesus being declared as the eternal purpose, the eternal word of God. John the Baptist proclaims him as the lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.
[5:35] John is revealing who Jesus is, and why Jesus came. Jesus didn't come to bring political security. He didn't make the difference to be expelled in our sin.
[5:50] He came to be the saviour of the world. He came to rescue us from the running and anger of God in his sin.
[6:01] That's why the gospel is so serious. This woman was running a big wall into a lost eternity. Relationship and relationship.
[6:14] He was running a big wall into a hell. Jesus took a point of a fire. Jesus took a point of a fire. He came to shape her, to live her sin, and to lead her into Christ.
[6:25] You see, what Jesus has been, in the gospel of John Isaiah, in chapter 3, he is convincing Nicodemus, he is too righteous to come to Christ.
[6:44] He is convincing, looking at the well in chapter 4, that nobody was too sinful to come to Christ. Jesus has not come to all righteous.
[6:57] He has come to call sinners. The question that we have asked about as a church is how do we reach out to our community? How do we reach out to Langston, to the Atlantic, to West Calder, to Roxborough, and to all the towns and villages in West London?
[7:16] What we have in this passage is an example of Jesus that we reach out almost always to the abundance and the tools. It is the personal righteousness of one person who comes to Christ and tells our friends in the first, the gospel of the Spirit.
[7:36] It comes up with somebody phoning, telling the news that somebody that we have been preaching to for years in prison, preaching to the service, and then they will be using it.
[7:52] It is the truth of faith in the midst of a violent faith. This man is not telling other prisoners of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[8:07] That man's conversion will go on and keep in reach dozens of people that perhaps you and I can't reach. This circle is different from our circle.
[8:18] This is the way that God's will open to. The witness will pray for our friends and our neighbours and family. And as they come to Christ, they will leave each other's poor friends.
[8:30] This passage is a new passage that they can happen in a Samaritan town like Sychar can happen in the towns and the villages of West London.
[8:41] So we see a new life on Sychar. Then secondly you see the living water and the well. The living water and the well.
[8:52] The centre of this is Christ's conversation with this woman and the well. First of all, under this table we see a fainter and lowly sling.
[9:06] Jesus starts by asking her for a thing. If you have launched into condemnation for her sin, how did he then?
[9:19] He started with a simple mission. He dressed her not as a racial activist but as a human being. As somebody made in the image of a Lord.
[9:34] We see in this passage the gentleness and the lowliness of Christ as he dealt with sin. We see in the image of a man.
[9:45] We see in the image of a human being. We see in the image of a human being. As a human being. But as a human being. And just like Nicodemus, he uses simple pictures. In Nicodemus he talks about earth.
[9:59] And when the good and the well he talks about water. And in both the heavens, both people miss the point. Jesus is talking about the spiritual and we are constantly talking about the physical.
[10:18] The world is a mutually intrigued by Jesus as human talking to her. Jesus was honoured to express it on me. He talks about drawing water from the world of salvation.
[10:30] The master evangelist turns into a conversation and he says that he knew the gift of God. He knew the gift of God. The woman still misunderstands, she says, we don't even have a pocket.
[10:48] She still misunderstands what we are saying. We have nothing to draw water with him and the well that is deep. Who would you get at living water?
[11:00] You see this passage of a progression of who Jesus is, is progressive. First of all, he says that you've waited for her father to.
[11:11] She then asks, in verse 19, so I perceive that he was conquered. And he goes finally to Caesar as the Messiah, the Son of the Lord.
[11:24] The woman is intrigued by this living water. The water that if we drink, we will never be thirsty. You see step by step what Jesus is doing is he is leading this woman to see our greatest need.
[11:40] What is this too much problem? She has been drinking from the broken systems of this world for years. She thinks that she can find happiness in marriage after marriage and relationship after relationship.
[12:00] None of these things have brought her to that. The people have committed to evil. And that is the problem with which one has said. The secret thing is satisfaction in the broken systems of this world, as Jeremiah says.
[12:15] And people have committed to evil. They are forsaken with a fountain of living waters and a huge systems. Broken systems have been pulled from the world.
[12:26] True joy, only find joy in God. Instead, who made us spend our life in chasing the manatees of this world, and this woman did.
[12:43] This morning, there was somebody who feels like a lover of enthusiasm. He says, when I considered what I had accomplished and what I had labour to achieve, I found everything to be free to have the pursuit of the world.
[13:02] There was nothing to be gained under the sun. of whatever death isn't chaotic body and NOT a god not to be broken.
[13:13] The reason Ialing. The reason that I was watching is dreadful about death in my life. The way that the highest life follows Hs.
[13:24] The reason I maj days what he does is the meук. The third language for me does not clash, is what he pronounciates the name except humans, as if we are in Christ. When we are in Christ, we find lasting satisfaction.
[13:42] Look as the Christ says, the water that I will give him, verse 14, the water that I will give him will be coming down a splendid water, willing up to eternal life.
[13:58] It is water. It is water of salvation. It is a divine source. It cannot be source in this world. It is a divine source because it is a divine God.
[14:12] Then we see also this heavy shame and sacrifice. The problem with this woman is that she couldn't see her meat. She couldn't see the vanity and the emptiness of her life.
[14:30] And you see, none of us see the need for rest of me until we see that we are in real and mortal danger. So Jesus presses home his teaching and he says these very simple words.
[14:44] Find me your husband. Go call your husband and come here. Jesus says divine sovereignty pinpoints the exact point of sin in her life.
[15:02] He recognizes the divine sovereignty and her shame and her guilt over all these different relationships. She had five husbands and now she was living unmarried in sin.
[15:18] And why does this woman ask about worship? Well, because her mind immediately knows the offense that has been caused by her past lifestyle.
[15:34] And that's why she asks Jesus this strange thing about where people worship. So if you perceive you are a prophet or a father's worship on this mountain, you see that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.
[15:52] Why would she go from a description about her husband to a description about worship? It might be that she's giving Jesus a red wedding.
[16:06] It might be that she's trying to give Jesus off the subject. But I would think that in her mind she has connected shame and guilt with offense against God and with the need for worship and sacrifice.
[16:28] What does offense against God require? What does offense against God require? It requires sacrifice. That's why I think that this woman's mind went into a description of where God should be worshipped.
[16:40] She knows deep down she needs forgiveness. Jesus has pinpointed her guilt and shame. And you see, Jesus has pinpointed her guilt and shame.
[16:51] And you see, Jesus has pinpointed her guilt and shame. He just simply says that God should be worshipped in spirit and in truth.
[17:07] He says that a time is coming when God will not be worshipped in a geographical location. Because all the symbols and all the ceremonies of the Old Covenant will be done away with.
[17:20] And we will worship God in the spirit guided by this work.erợtination within You will not worship. Let us stand in grounded, we will not fame as we want to preach arrogant for a woman.
[17:33] We will buraya to foot in aion of faith in seven years, you'm going to pray as it would be as early as you do as an manifestation of the Camille. The pastна street���ing is a book seat.A. The pastlicharist of Holy Covenant willwan烹cy. We will learn that the nyamorphic is done so as hymn has been buавай as lying.
[17:53] It will be simple, it will be reverential, and most of all, it will be spiritual. New Testament worship will be God-centered, it will be Christ-centered, it will be reverent, it will be spiritual.
[18:13] There will be no more need for types, for shadows, for symbols, and segments. There will be worship an invisible God, and there will be worship spiritually.
[18:26] And that's why in our Reformation history, in the Reformation tradition, the pulpit is always central in the church, because the word of God is central.
[18:39] The problem today is that the thought that we've moved to the side of the church, because the word of God is no longer ascending. People are not worshiping in spirit and in truth.
[18:55] This verse does not mean that anything we do in worship, if we are sincere, is okay to go. What this means is that we must worship through the Holy Spirit's strength and inner, and that we must worship according to the Lord, and that we must worship in spirit and in truth.
[19:20] The big question in worship is not how does this make me feel, but what will bring people in? The question is what is truth according to the order of the Lord?
[19:33] Is it biblical? Is it God-ordered from him? Is it God at the center, or a man at the center? Is it God-ordered, that we must worship, it is Christian. O call at the center. This is God by the name of Jesus, who we must worship in spirit.
[19:44] Just pray for the comparison. It is God-ordered from Him . And also the next side. So, if you come and see when Jesus reveals finally the door of Jesus' faith, You shall hear from Christ and Ha Mayo-iev. dieseena deliverments of God in spirit.
[19:56] And Jesus said only to& funk. And Jesus said for Jesus, from these days to lớp this morning. This was so wonderful, from us, did He go on Deus. Jesus concludes, what He said. Jesus, with Heaven and Heavenly Jesus delivered, Jesus really九 researched by you in spirit. Jesus reached little seated that Jesus in prayer, Jesus utilized his presence he showed her her need he had exposed her sin he showed her true worship and finally he reveals himself to her in all his true glory suddenly the scales fall from this woman's eyes and she sees that he is much much more than a prophet he is not just greater than Jacob he is not just more than a prophet he is indeed the Messiah the Son of God his glimpse into her sin and shame has shown her that this man was indeed the Christ and I love that little mention here she liked her water to her verse 28 so the woman liked her water to her and went away into time and said to the people she forgot why she was there she forgot why she did the world she just dropped her water to her and ran to the table she was so excited because she had seen Jesus come see a man who told me all that ever did can this be a Christ her life of sin and shame was over and her life as an evangelist had begun she was a racial activist she was shun by our community she was notorious for her life's death and yet she was welcomed with open arms by the Savior and then just lastly we see the last sin bread we see this conversation with the disciples they came back at the time and verse 31 and they tried to say to the Lord and they tried to encourage Jesus to eat and just like Nicodemus and just like the little bit of the world Jesus was on a different plane from the disciples he was on the spiritual and they were on the temple where their minds were on the fruit and Jesus' mind is on the gospel and the great transformation of the woman at the well
[22:52] Christ says that his fruit is to do the world of him who sent him and to accomplish his work and he says that after four months then comes the harvest in this part of the Middle East the distance between weeping and sowing is only four months because of the heat and because of the temperature and what Jesus is saying is that sometimes weeping and sowing it happened very quickly he sowed the seed into this woman's heart and the harvest was coming very quickly he also talks about how one sows and another leaves and what he's saying there is that we are building on the work of the prophets of the prophets of John the Baptist of those who have gone before those who have sown the truth of the gospel and they are looking for that harvest many hundreds of years what we have in this message is that we have this reference to the fields of white for harvest and I think what Jesus was saying as he was looking towards the elders and he was seeing perhaps thousands perhaps hundreds of people all of a sudden dressed in their white garments walking towards Jesus as part of the great harvest of souls that is coming towards the disciples what Jesus is saying is that we have sown the seed and here the harvest is coming towards us we have to reap the harvest that we have sown and so that's a great encouragement for us we are sowing the seed of God's word we are telling others about the gospel we are trying to witness our family we are trying to witness our work communities we are trying to witness our neighbors but it might be that we both see the harvest in our lifetime it might be that we are trying to witness our life but we have to faithfully speak and we have to faithfully reap and we have to lead ultimately the harvest up to the Lord we have to live in our lifetime it is no greater work than the spreading of the gospel it says in
[25:25] Daniel chapter 12 verse 3 we that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever it might be that we labored in this generation we don't see much fruit for our labors we might be that others that we must reap and we must sow and we must reap faithful as Jesus is teaching in this passage so what can we say in conclusion about this passage well truly the great conclusion of john chapter 4 is that nobody is beyond the gospel nobody is beyond the gospel Jesus did not come to call the righteous sinners and time and time again in the gospel Jesus chooses the most unlikely candidates to do the gospel to do the gospel he chose he chose prostitutes he chose tax collectors
[26:42] Jesus constantly he chose the most unlikely candidates to do the blood and the gospel i'm sure what jesus is teaching us this one is that nobody is beyond the scope of the gospel of the gospel nobody is beyond the scope of the gospel that is why the villagers included that jesus was the savior of the world he's not the savior of the jews or the samaritans or any other entity he is the savior of the whole world the gospel the gospel one says in first john 2 2 he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sinness of the whole world of the world and the surface of the world the task of the seven in that verse and he says that christ has drawn a zone of mercy a zone of mercy i reckon to be able and that zone of mercy includes everybody the gospel goes out to everybody regardless of treat or color or sinful background the bible teaches us that not everybody will be safe the gospel goes out with love and with zeal everybody and to anyone who is the gospel is the gospel must be offered fully and freely to the worst sinner it's why if you go to prisons with the gospel it's why you can go anywhere with the gospel because the gospel is for anyone and for everyone it's why john g. Nathan is you can see them turning to christ because god has cast a zone of mercy around this simple world this passage also comes to us personally and it answers the question where do we stand with regard to christ do you see christ as a great teacher do you see him as a prophet or do you see him as the messiah do you see him as christ do you see him as the savior of the world as a prophet and it is as a prophet as a prophet this morning is still drinking from the broken systems of this world can't find pleasure with all your own places we're going from relationship to relationship or we're going from new toy to new toy or we're going from one event to the other and we're finding no satisfaction this passage this morning invites all of us to come and to drink deeply in the wells of salvation to come and drink the water of life and to build that spirit of water that will well up in us unto eternal life why do we continue drinking from those horrible filthy broken systems when christ this morning is walking us this living water this eternal water that will realize this eternal life for all people need to that water this morning and we can drink deeply on the wells of salvation and to come to Christ what this glorious woman did it's a matter of how sinful you are it's a matter of how sinful you are it's a matter of how you find in us that you have to be all that sin and your sins do as scarlet which is light as soon as a matter of how you come to that saviour
[30:44] this morning the saviour of the Lord thank you for the hope of the Lord that is no way beyond the hope of salvation thank you Lord that you pass the zone of mercy for the Lord that you have to be that you have to be and those who think they are too good and those who think they are too bad and we ask Lord that you have to fall us through and think we can be taken in the wells of salvation and we ask Lord that you have to help us succeed that we are consistent with this world that we have to win us in our satisfaction whatever the paths that we are looking for whatever new toy we are seeking to run in our new toy we are seeking to run in the relationship we are seeking to move into we pray that Lord you have to help us to see that many of these things will bring us the last and the last of us in our new ways we will never change to Christ alone and find true joy in ourselves and the Lord for all any who are watching with this in faith dwell into your circle receive our thanks to the gospel in Jesus name on the publishing one
[32:00] Mr.