[0:00] Let's turn to God's Word, to the Gospel of John, in John chapter 4. We're just carrying on our series, we'll see later on, looking at Jesus encountering various people and how he transforms their lives.
[0:15] John chapter 4, read verses 1 down to verse 45, the account of the Sumerian woman. John chapter 4, let's hear the Word of God.
[0:55] From whence then hast thou that living water?
[1:58] Art thou greater than her father Jacob, which gave us a well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 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.
[2:19] But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to throw.
[2:34] Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 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 five husbands, and he whom thou knowest has is not thy husband, and that thou sayest thou truly.
[2:58] The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
[3:10] Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship, ye know not what.
[3:23] We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But he hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
[3:34] The Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ.
[3:49] When he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman.
[4:06] Yet no man said, What seekest thou, or why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did.
[4:21] Is not this the Christ? Then he went out of the city, and came unto him. In the meanwhile his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
[4:35] Therefore said the disciples one to another, Have any man brought him aught to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
[4:48] Say not ye, there are yet four months, then cometh the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white and ready to harvest.
[5:00] And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal. That both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
[5:11] And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap what whereon ye bestowed no labour. Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
[5:24] And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him, for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought that he would tarry with them.
[5:39] And he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word. And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying.
[5:49] For we have heard him ourselves, and know that he is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. After two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.
[6:02] And so on, to the end of the chapter. We give praise to God for his holy and his perfect word. Let's again sing to God's praise. This time from Psalm 25.
[6:14] Psalm 25. Psalm 25. We can sing verses 1 down to verse 6 of the psalm. To thee I lift my soul.
[6:26] O Lord, I trust in thee. My God, let me not be ashamed, nor foes triumph over me. Let none that wait on thee be put to shame at all. But those that without cause transgress, let shame upon them fall.
[6:40] Psalm 25, verse 1 to 6. To God's praise. To thee I lift my soul.
[6:55] O Lord, I trust in thee. My God, let me not be ashamed, nor foes triumph over me.
[7:19] Let me not be ashamed, nor foes triumph over me. Let me not be ashamed, nor foes triumph over me.
[7:33] Let me not be ashamed, nor foes triumph over me. Let me not be ashamed, nor foes triumph over me.
[7:47] Let me not be ashamed, nor foes triumph over me.
[7:58] Show me thy faithfulness. Show me thy faithful heart. Thy faithful, O Lord, thy faithful, For thou art, O Lord, thy faithful, For thou art, O Lord, thy faithful, For thou art, O Lord, thy faithful, For thou art, O Lord, thy faithful, For thou art, O Lord, thy faithful, For thou art, O Lord, thy faithful,
[9:03] For thou art, O Lord, thy faithful, For thou art, O Lord, thy faithful, O Lord, thy faithful, For thou art, O Lord, that ways And I will be my message for you.
[9:42] I will be my Lord forever. Let's for a short time turn back to the chapter we had.
[9:58] John chapter 4. John 4. As we said we're looking at the account of a woman of Samaria. Carrying on our series.
[10:09] Looking at encounters with Jesus in the book of John. We've been seeing so far how Jesus meets these people.
[10:20] Nicodemus, Philip and Nathaniel. He meets them where they are. He meets them as they are. And then he transforms their life.
[10:30] Life. We see the exact same thing taking place with us here in chapter 4 this day. Of course this is a well known story for us.
[10:44] We all know so well the account of a woman at the well. So I've been even more careful in seeing what God's word actually says about this woman. And what God's word actually says about her encounter with Jesus.
[10:58] At times sometimes if we're too familiar with scripture we tend to skip over parts. We tend to read over parts. But in fact in this account we see such beauty and such love from a saviour to one who is lost.
[11:14] To one who needs saving. We see him dealing with her gently, kindly, honestly. And we see her then coming to know her saviour for herself.
[11:30] There's an encounter where one who is hopeless becomes so full of hope. One who has no clear aim in life all of a sudden becomes very focused in life.
[11:42] And one who is by all accounts an outsider, an outcast becomes so well loved and so well known.
[11:54] Now given the scope and the size of her passage we can look at it just in three very simple and at times overlapping headings. Quite simply looking first at the woman, then looking at her saviour, and then looking at her witness.
[12:12] So the woman, her saviour, and then quite simply her witness as time permits. First of all looking together at the woman.
[12:23] Please do have your Bibles open. And we'll be jumping around this chapter and jumping around these verses as we see what the scripture tells us about this woman. We meet her first of all here in verses 3 down to verse 6.
[12:40] Well we don't really, but we do in a sense. Verse 3 down to verse 6. Verse 3, speaking of Jesus. He left Judea and departed again into Galilee. Verse 4.
[12:51] And he must needs go through Samaria. Our translations have and he had or he needed to go through Samaria.
[13:04] Jesus, here again we saw this last week with Nicodemus. We saw it before with Philip and Nathaniel. Here we see Jesus making his way directly to the next person he is planning to meet.
[13:18] Now we'll see this more later on as we look at her saviour, as we look at Jesus and himself, what he's done to save his woman. But we must say here at the start, there are three routes to go from Judea to Galilee.
[13:32] At least three routes we know of from the time. And the Jews to go from Judea to Galilee, who would not on purpose go through this part of Samaria.
[13:43] We'll see that later on. The Jews had no time for the Samaritans and Samaritans had no time for the Jews. And we'll see that in a second. Jesus didn't have to go this way.
[13:55] This way was a longer way. This way was a more dangerous way, physically dangerous way. There's mountains this way. And this way was a way that passed through a place which hates his people, which hates the Jews.
[14:10] When we see here in verse 4, he must needs to go through Samaria. Jesus had to go through Samaria. Physically, he didn't. Geographically, he didn't.
[14:21] For the sake of getting to Galilee, he didn't. So why did Jesus, in verse 4, why did he have to go to Samaria? Because Jesus, as we heard, even last week in the evening, looking at the plan of God, from time itself, from before time, from before creation, Jesus had set his heart on this woman.
[14:48] He knew her. He saw her. And he had planned on this day to come and to save her. This woman is a woman who's been sought out by Jesus.
[15:01] First and foremost, Scripture lets us know that this is a woman who Jesus saw, he knew, and he changed his travel plans as a were to find her and to come alongside her.
[15:14] So what do we see and hear about this woman? We see from verses 6 down to verse 7 that this woman is truly an outcast.
[15:26] We say, well, how do we see that? How do we know that? We see it in verse 6. Jesus comes up to this well. And we see the end of verse 6. What time is that? It's about the sixth hour. So about 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock, 12 to 1.
[15:38] It's midday. It's midday. Midday in this town. Midday in this desert land. And verse 7 becomes a woman of Samaria.
[15:51] The woman is here in the height of midday, the very, very hottest point of the day. Here she is going to the well to take up water. You think, well, that's strange, isn't it?
[16:04] Why is this woman going at the hottest point of the day to do this really labour-intensive task of dragging this heavy bucket or pail of water from a well to her home?
[16:15] Perhaps even doing it a few times? Well, the answer is quite simple, isn't it? This is the one time this woman will be on her own at the well.
[16:27] This is the one time this woman can come to a place and be guaranteed there'll be no one there with her. She goes to the well in the height of the sweltering midday sun in this desert place because she can't be around other people.
[16:41] We see that and we sense that in this text, don't we? This woman is truly an outcast. She's an outcast from the place she stays in.
[16:54] An outcast from the town. And we'll see as we go on, of course. We see more and more as to why this woman has been abandoned and has been labelled as an untouchable almost.
[17:07] But for a second, in this small detail in Scripture, we see her life being shown before us. We see her existence being painted before us. Here's a woman who in a sense is on her own, who has no friends, who has, as it were, no community contact, who is here on her own, dragging these pails of water home in this sweltering midday sun.
[17:34] This is a woman who is in a poor way. It's in a poor way, really. And you can picture her, you can see her there. This woman who feels so unknown, who feels so unloved, who those around her only know her through the gossip and through the chat and through all the discussions they have about her.
[17:56] We'll see that more as we go on. This is a woman who we can be almost certain and her life is all known about. She's been gossiped about in the area, talked about in the area.
[18:07] And she is quite throughly and quite literally on her own here, gathering in her water in this sweltering midday sun. She's an outcast.
[18:19] We see even more than that in verses 16 down to verse 18. And we also see that she is abandoned. Verses 16 down to verse 18.
[18:29] We have this well-known part of the account here. Verse 16, Jesus says to her, Go, call thy husband and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband.
[18:40] Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands. And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. What sayest thou truly?
[18:55] Nothing we see here, dear friends, nothing is hidden from Jesus. Jesus, in verse 16, when he asks her that question, he doesn't do it because he doesn't know the answer.
[19:06] He knows her story. He knows every part of her story. He knows all her life, before he even created the universe, he knew this woman's story.
[19:19] So why in verse 16 does Jesus ask her a question he knows the answer to? Why does he ask her a question that he knows is impossible for her to actually answer or to do?
[19:30] Go call your husband and come back, come hither. Because Jesus is wanting to lead this woman, we'll see this later on, Jesus is wanting to lead this woman to honestly and clearly see her need for him.
[19:48] This woman is in a complicated situation, it's safe to say. A very complicated situation. It's for this situation, indeed from this situation, we can assume and with confidence say that this woman was an outcast.
[20:04] Bad enough, perhaps, in her own day, but imagine yourself in this culture, in this day, this woman is talked about but is not talked to. This woman is seen but no one talks to her.
[20:16] This woman, everyone knows her business, everyone knows her story but no one actually knows her. Now before we berate her and perhaps think too ill of her, here's where we see perhaps something that we're so used to reading the story and so used to reading Scripture, we have perhaps missed something that Scripture makes quite obvious to us and involves us doing a bit of research, a bit of thinking just now together.
[20:48] The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Verse 18, For thou hast had five husbands. The simple question we have to ask is, who can divorce who in a Samaritan town?
[21:07] Who can divorce who in this day in a Jewish town? Well, dear friends, the woman of this day had no power of divorce.
[21:17] We see that from history and the commentators make that clear to us. The woman had no power of divorce. She's been divorced five times. She had no say and has no grounds and has no ability to leave those five husbands.
[21:36] These five marriages which have been dissolved were done by the five men. Now they might have died perhaps, but if not death, then the marriages were dissolved by the men themselves.
[21:48] Now we don't know the circumstances, we don't know the story, but the truth is, this woman, five different men have left her. Five different men have abandoned her.
[22:02] And we see Scripture here, Scripture here in Christ himself just calls this a fact. He doesn't add comment to that side of things.
[22:13] He did comments later on, yes, but as to the fact of her having five husbands, Christ does not comment on that one fact, does he? No, he does not. At times we see this woman being portrayed in a way that Scripture does not really portray her.
[22:31] She has been left five times by five different men. This is a woman who needs that guidance, who needs the comfort of Jesus.
[22:42] A woman who has no social standing. A woman who has no clear sight of what she's doing in her life.
[22:53] Now we're not ignoring the second half of the truth that Jesus gives to her. We're not ignoring the fact that the man she is now with is not actually her husband. And we'll come back to that in a second.
[23:04] But folks, in just the first half of Christ's reply back to her. This is a woman who's been abandoned five times, has no social standing, will have no way perhaps of having her own income.
[23:19] She has no stability in life. She has no clear path in life. This is a woman who we see has spent a lifetime looking for something and finding nothing. Looking for answers here and there.
[23:31] Looking to be satisfied spiritually and mentally. and finding nothing. To the town to her, to those around her, to the people she has lost.
[23:43] Have you heard about so and so? That's her fourth husband now. That's her fifth husband now. And to her shame, we know that kind of chat, don't we? We've all engaged in that kind of chat at times.
[23:57] Here's a woman who, humanly speaking, who has no hope, has no direction. What happens to this woman? What do we see taking place?
[24:09] As Jesus confronts her reality, indeed as Jesus confronts then her sin, we'll see in a second, what takes place in her life? Verse 19, Jesus has just told her her life story.
[24:25] Does she say, does she walk away? Does she just not bother with him? Does she deny anything? No. Verse 19, The woman saith unto Jesus, unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
[24:40] See, she actually listens to Jesus. She listens to Jesus. She responds to Jesus. And we see from these verses, verses 19 down, that she has an understanding of holy things.
[24:54] She has spent time trying to work out what it means to worship God, what it is to know God, what it is to serve God. She has tried to think these things through for herself.
[25:07] She responds to Jesus. But even more than that, she actually asks Jesus for help. Give me this living water. And we see later on the effects of her salvation in the town she lives in.
[25:24] This is a woman who goes from abandoned, who goes from sinful, who goes from outcast, to being talked to by Jesus. Her sin is confronted by Jesus.
[25:36] Her theology is then corrected by Jesus. And living water is offered to her by Jesus. In this woman, do we not see just such a glorious glimpse of salvation?
[25:51] The Christians here, perhaps your story is not her story, but in some ways all our stories are like her story. we were once so lost, so confused, looking for answers in the world.
[26:06] Some here, you look for answers in money, in addiction, and so on and so on. You know your own story so well. But like the woman you found, you were abandoned and left, and as were abused again and again and again, the world gave you nothing to satisfy you.
[26:23] you were wrong in your understanding of who Jesus was, you were wrong in your understanding of theology, you were so lost and caught up in your sin, and then, and then Jesus, he found you, didn't he?
[26:39] He found you in your lostness, he found you in your abandonment, he found you in the middle of your sin, and he showed you your sin for what it was, he convicted you of that sin, and then slowly, firmly but gently, he taught you about who he was, he led you to himself.
[27:02] For those here who as of yet, who as of yet don't know Jesus, the question is, can you see yourself just now in the story of this woman? Perhaps not in the details, perhaps not at all in the details, but in her reality.
[27:19] Are you here just now and you think to yourself, yes, I want to know who Jesus is, I want to understand about who he is, but you still feel so lost, you spent your life looking for something, but finding nothing.
[27:35] Spent your life looking for answers in various places, in various ways, but nothing has truly satisfied you. Follow the example of this woman as she listens to the words of Jesus, as she responds to the words of Jesus, and she has her life then transformed, transformed by Jesus.
[28:02] Friend, if you are hopeless today, if you feel hopeless, if you feel helpless, and perhaps you've never shared that, but in your own mind, in your own soul, you just feel so useless, and so helpless, and so hopeless, then be like this woman.
[28:17] Follow her lead. Jesus offers her the living water. Jesus tells her that he is the one come to save his people. She listens to him.
[28:28] She actually responds to him, and she asks for that living water, and Jesus transforms her life. We complicate things, don't we? We add bits and pieces to the gospel.
[28:40] The gospel does not add to itself. It's quite simple. This woman is a sinner, and she knows she needs saving, and she looks for answers.
[28:51] She looks for that salvation. She's found it nowhere in her life, and nowhere in the world. Jesus comes to her. He says, he has living water, water that will give her life eternal, water that will satisfy her longing heart, her longing soul.
[29:09] She listens to him. She actually listens to him. He gives her that living water, he tells her he is the saviour. She believes him, and we see then her life is transformed and changed in that very second.
[29:27] So here we meet the woman, one who is living in sin, one who has been abandoned again and again, one who is searching for something yet finding nothing, but then she meets Jesus, or in truth Jesus then meets her.
[29:47] That brings us to our second point, her saviour. Her saviour. How do we see Jesus meeting his people in this chapter?
[29:58] Taking ourselves back down to verses one, down to verse six, we see, as we said before, Jesus, he finds her. He makes her way towards this woman.
[30:09] But even more than that, we see that the reality of verse six, Jacob's well was there, Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour.
[30:26] Again, no word in scripture is wasted. Why do we need to know that small detail of verse six, Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey? Well, first of all, and generally, it reminds us that we worship a saviour who is fully man, but also who is fully God, who came and lived his life, as we said before, as fully man, of all the shortcomings and the physical limitations that we have.
[30:55] Jesus had walked miles upon miles through a hard, hard terrain and he is exhausted. Of course he is. But here we see something more beautiful.
[31:07] We saw in our first few weeks together how Jesus came down to become part of his own creation, how God became incarnate, how God became man, how Christ entered into the world he himself had created, a world made through him and made for him.
[31:25] But even more than that, we see here that Jesus, quite literally and quite physically, he walked and he travelled and he made up the distance to go find his people.
[31:35] Jesus walked miles upon miles off the hardest path possible, quite literally, to find this woman. He has exhausted himself to find her.
[31:47] He has walked so long and so far, he has a point of exhaustion, all to find this woman. Again, the loving kindness of our Saviour, who not only came down from glory indescribable to creation, who not only veiled his glory, who not only lived that life of suffering, but then whilst he was on earth, who then gave himself even more to come to find and to save his people.
[32:20] Not just heaven to earth as if that wasn't glorious enough, but our Saviour also travels on earth to find his people and to save his people.
[32:33] So he finds her then in verses 10 to 15, he gives her, he offers her this living water. We see first of all in these verses, he challenges her theology.
[32:52] There's no time today, but the Jews and the Samaritans were in some senses quite similar, but in other senses were completely different. different. We see here a glimpse as to this, the Samaritans worshipped in their mountain here, the Jews worshipped in Jerusalem and so on, but they believed there were almost the same things, but there were divergences in their theology, in their practice, in their history.
[33:18] The Samaritans of course claimed that they were God's people truly, and the Jews of course claimed that they were God's people. Truly, the Samaritans had some strange and odd practices and beliefs, but again, there's no time for us this day to go into that in depth, but just to say that the Samaritans and the Jews, whilst they had some similarities, there was no crossover in life.
[33:42] They didn't interact, they didn't speak, if they could avoid it, they didn't have anything to do with one another. And we see that reflected in these verses. If this is a woman who knew her stuff, we see that 10 to 15, Jesus, first of all, he challenges her theology.
[34:01] She knows something about her history, something about who God is, but Jesus reminds her and Jesus tells her that salvation we see here, verse 22, salvation is of the Jews, that God's plan of salvation is coming through his set-apart people.
[34:19] But Jesus is greater, we see, than their father, Jacob. We see her asking that in verse 12, art thou greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us a well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle?
[34:35] Jesus says and Jesus shows to this woman he is indeed much greater than Jacob. Jacob came to serve, of course, God led Jacob and Jacob came to lead his people and he did that well at times and not so well other times.
[34:52] But here we see Jesus as the greater Jacob. Jacob gave his people a well. Jesus comes as the true source of living water.
[35:03] He is much greater than her father, Jacob, than their father, Jacob. Jesus comes to give this living, eternal water, a living, eternal water that does not run dry, that does not cease to satisfy his precious people.
[35:25] Verse 13, Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall first again, speaking of her water, the natural water, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never first.
[35:43] Here we see that the centre of this woman's salvation. She has been looking for answers and finding nothing. She is so lost and she is so clueless for things she feels that she can't find what she's looking for again and again.
[35:59] She can't find it, she can't find it. She is so, as it were, spiritually dry, so thirsty, and yet we see here Jesus addressing this problem so clearly and so simply.
[36:13] The water that he will give her. will mean that she will never have that spiritual dryness ever again. She won't have to ever again look to the world for her comfort or for her answers.
[36:27] She can find it all in Jesus. He is the living water. He's also the Messiah. We see that in verses 16 roughly down to verse 26.
[36:43] We see again Jesus say to call, call your husband. Before Jesus gives her the living water, her situation and her sin must be dealt with first.
[36:57] Christians, brothers and sisters, is that not our story too? Before we were saved, our situation and indeed our sin had to be made known to us. We had to be convicted of that sin and that is our story, isn't it?
[37:10] Before we were saved, Jesus showed us our need for salvation. We see that taking place here. Yes, we said she's been abandoned by these other husbands but the truth is she is still living in sin.
[37:28] Verse 18, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. She's living in a way that's against Scripture. She's living in a way that is against what God's law has told her and has instructed her to live.
[37:41] This is a woman who is living in sin. This is a woman who is a sinner. And Jesus makes that clear to her. He guides her and he allows her to acknowledge the fact that yes, she is a sinner.
[37:57] Yes, she is in sin. But that only makes it even more beautiful that she needs a saviour. And even more clear that she needs a saviour.
[38:09] Her weakness then leads to her reliance. Then leads to her faith. Dear friends, Jesus will find his people.
[38:22] Wherever they are, he will find his people. He will, as a word, go the distance to find his people. You are not too far away. You are not too lost.
[38:34] You are not too gone in your sins. You haven't done things that are too bad. And so on and so on. And the excuses, you know yourself. We could spend an hour going through the excuses, but you alone know the excuses that you have.
[38:47] Your sin is not too great. Your distance is not too far from Jesus. We see that here, quite physically, he is willing and he was willing to go the distance to find his people.
[39:00] Jesus finds his people. He seeks them out and he draws alongside them. Jesus then gives living water to his people.
[39:12] He takes away from us our reliance on what this world gives us and he instead gives us living water so that we as his people will never have to thirst again.
[39:23] Dear friends, do you look for that? Do you actually long for that? A reality where you no longer feel that need, that thirst, where you have that desire where you can't ever be really happy.
[39:36] You can't ever feel really satisfied. You're always looking for something. Surely there's more to life than this. Surely there's more reason for my existence than the daily grind of life.
[39:49] What's the point of it all? What's the meaning of it all? Rest by the cool quiet, clear stream of a living water that your Saviour is offering to you just now?
[40:06] Jesus knows the truth. He knows your story. If you're wanting to hang back and wait until your life looks better, until you're acting better before you then come to Jesus when you're making a mistake, Jesus knows you.
[40:22] He knows me. He knows our stories. He knows our sin. He knows our darkness. He knows our failings and our faults. He knew all about this woman before she ever had an inkling into who he was.
[40:37] He knew her. He saw her in her sin. He saw her in her lostness. He saw her in her rebellion. Yet he came to her. Dear friends, Jesus knows you.
[40:49] He sees you in your sin. He sees you in your rebellion. Yet through his word this very moment, he is coming to you right now. He knows you.
[41:00] At the end of the day, he is the Messiah. He is the only hope of salvation for his people. Will you be like this woman?
[41:12] Will you come to Jesus and allow him to honestly and precisely and clearly show you who you are, show you your need for him? Be like this woman.
[41:25] As Jesus offers you this very moment, living water, take that living water. Take it for yourself and know for the first time in your life what it is to truly be alive, to truly have that spiritual life which you as of yet do not have.
[41:43] Come and live. Come and be fully spiritually satisfied. Come and know him like this woman did as her saviour, as the Christ, as the Messiah.
[41:56] Time is gone but just very briefly, what is the result of her salvation? What's the result of her as we're drinking from this living water? We see that in verses 28 downwards.
[42:09] First of all verse 28, the woman then left her water pot and went into the city and saith to the men, come see a man which told me all things, whatever I did is not this to Christ.
[42:21] The woman left her water pot, she came there looking for the water, she found true living water. A wee bit like blind Bartimaeus where he is called by Jesus, he leaves behind his cloak doesn't he, that symbol of his old life, or here we see the woman doing something similar.
[42:42] She finds Jesus, she is saved by Jesus and she leaves that bucket where she left it and she runs back into the city. She goes straight back into the town to tell those around her who she's just met.
[42:59] Her old life has been left of a well because she has found living water. And her witness is so simple and Christians we should take note of this, how simple her witness is, how simple her evangelism is.
[43:14] come and see, come and see, come see a man. She doesn't begin to engage in all the great theological discussion that those in the town would have had to have had.
[43:31] Bear in mind this is a town of Samaritans and she's saying there's a Jewish man here who's saying he's the Messiah, there's a Jewish man who has saved me, there's a Jewish man here who says he's the Christ and I believe he's the Christ.
[43:43] Can you imagine the questions and the discussions and the debates the Samaritans would have had with her? But no, she says come and see for yourself.
[43:54] We saw this previously in our first week together as Philip says to Nathaniel come and see, come and see for yourself. Christians this is our witness, this is our story, this is how we should conduct ourselves with those around us.
[44:10] Yes have the discussions, yes absolutely we must discuss, we must have the conversations that come up. But at the end of the day our evangelism is simple, come and see.
[44:23] We take what's around us to Jesus, we can't save them, our words can't save them, our evangelism, our sermons can't save them. What saves anyone?
[44:35] Who saves anyone? It's Jesus. It's by coming to Jesus is anyone ever saved. once an outcast, once uncared for, now we see this woman an evangelist, so full of joy, so full of this living water, she can't help but talk and tell everyone about her saviour.
[44:59] We see that effect only in verses 39 downwards. Verse 39, and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, he told me all whatever I did.
[45:16] This woman, who was once uncared for, an outcast, abandoned, is now the evangelist of this city. She is now sharing the good news, sharing the gospel to those around her.
[45:31] They believed because of her, but even more than that, see that the glorious words of verse 42, the town talking to woman, those around her, talking to her. Verse 42, saying, now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and knowing that this is indeed the Christ, the saviour of the world.
[45:52] Dear friends, that is the wish and the prayer of the Christians here. You'll be able to say the words of those around the woman. Yes, you listened to us to come and see Jesus, but you've actually met him for yourself now, and because you've met him for yourself, you can say yourselves that he is truly the saviour of the world.
[46:14] Dear friends, Jesus sees you. He sees you in your sin. He knows you. He knows your sin. He knows your lostness. And that is exactly the way he has come to save you.
[46:30] He has come to save you from that very sin which holds you back from coming to him in the first place. Jesus did not save, did not come to save folks who are trying to clean themselves up.
[46:43] Jesus did not come to save folks who are trying to look holy, to act holy, to sound holy. He came to save sinners. He came to save those who are lost.
[46:55] Dear friend, if you feel yourself a sinner this day, if you feel yourself lost and confused this day, then Jesus has come to save you. for all the excuses you have, for all the formality we have, for all the complications we may place in front of the gospel.
[47:14] The gospel is simple. Jesus has come to save sinners. And dear friends, we are all sinners. Come to him. Come find that living water for yourself.
[47:25] Come and drink. It is for you. Even this afternoon, go home and pray. Take these things to the Lord in prayer. Talk to the Christians you know here.
[47:36] Talk to the elders. God willing, I'm with you in every few weeks. Grab me if you have to. But don't let this chance pass you by. Be like this woman. Once she was lost, uncared for, abandoned, stuck in sin.
[47:54] Jesus found her. He saved her. He gave her living water. And she goes from being uncared for and abandoned to being an evangelist. To telling those who once hated her and despised her all the way for Jesus she loves.
[48:09] Come see a man. Let's bear our heads now. A word of prayer. Lord, we ask, Lord, as we come around your word once more, that you bless your word to us. We thank you for it. We ask, as always, that you would forgive anything that was said, not in accordance to your word.
[48:24] We give you praise that the power is in you working through your holy word and not in the jars of clay, Lord, who stand up here. Bless your word to your people today.
[48:35] Encourage your people as we are reminded as to the saving power of our saviour. We ask that you would also encourage and bless your word to those here who as of yet don't know Jesus, that they themselves would come and drink of this living water.
[48:50] Even this new week, we come and have Jesus as their Lord and as their saviour. Help us now to leave this place, Lord, in safety, to spend the rest of this day praising your name and glorifying who you are and what you've done for us.
[49:05] It's always things in and through and for his precious name's sake. Amen. Let's conclude by singing to God's praise from Psalm 34.
[49:20] Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Psalm 34. 7. 4. We're just saying verses 1 down to verse 7 of the psalm.
[49:35] Psalm 34 verses 1 down to verse 7. God will I bless all times, his praise my mouth shall still express, my soul shall boast in God, the meek shall hear of joyfulness.
[49:46] Extol the Lord with me, let us exult his name together. I sought the Lord, he heard, and did me from all fears deliver. Psalm 34 verses 1-7 to God's praise.
[50:25] Psalm 34 verses 1-7 to God's praise.
[51:25] Psalm 34 verses 1-7 to God's praise.
[51:57] Psalm 34 verses 1-7 to God's praise. Let's close it by diction.
[52:14] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, both for now and forevermore. Amen.