WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.960 Let us hear God's word. John chapter 4 at verse 27. Just then his elders came back. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:23.719 They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, what do you seek? 00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:31.759 Or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away 00:00:31.759 --> 00:00:41.519 into the town and said to the people, come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. 00:00:41.519 --> 00:00:52.599 Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. Meanwhile, 00:00:52.600 --> 00:01:01.800 the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have 00:01:01.800 --> 00:01:09.680 food to eat, but you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another, 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:18.920 has anyone brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the 00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:29.599 will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:37.359 are yet four months, then comes the harvest? Luke, I tell you, lift up your eyes 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:45.840 and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who weeps is 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:54.120 receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that soar and reaper 00:01:54.120 --> 00:02:04.080 may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps. I 00:02:04.080 --> 00:02:12.680 sent you to reap for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:21.719 entered into their labor. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because 00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:31.319 of the woman's testimony. He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans 00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:37.879 came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days and 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:46.519 many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it is no longer 00:02:46.519 --> 00:02:53.960 because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and we 00:02:53.960 --> 00:03:04.000 know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. Amen. May God bless to us our 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:08.080 reading from his word. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:19.000 We are working our way through our vision and values right now. This is the 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:25.560 third week and this is just a look for six weeks at our DNA and who we 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:29.960 want to be here at St. Columbus. Let me read to you one more time our vision 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:35.439 statement that has come out recently from our elders. St. Columbus and our 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:40.360 family of church plants exist to seek a city-wide movement of the gospel by 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:45.200 helping people find and follow Jesus, love God in one another, and seek the 00:03:45.200 --> 00:03:48.879 peace of the city. Last week we talked about the fact that every person 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:54.520 needs to find Jesus, discover Jesus, and then follow Jesus. That leads us to 00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:59.560 our first two core values here at St. Columbus, which is every person ministry 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:05.400 and public faith. We won't have a sermon on every single one of the core 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:10.400 values. That would be a long, long series, but I did want to stop for a week 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:14.080 and pull this out because it follows directly on from this emphasis we have 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:17.960 in the importance of every person in our city having the opportunity to 00:04:17.960 --> 00:04:22.720 encounter Jesus, to find him, to discover him. We say in the vision statement 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:27.200 that we seek to help people find and follow Jesus. If we're going to do that, 00:04:27.200 --> 00:04:31.880 that means that we've got to have a mentality that every single person here 00:04:31.880 --> 00:04:37.560 is a minister and that that means we're all called to have a public faith, 00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:42.760 not a private faith. We'll just pause on that this week and focus on it for a 00:04:42.760 --> 00:04:48.240 little bit. Last week we read the first part of John 4 where Jesus encounters 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:54.120 this unnamed woman, Samaritan woman, at a well. He said to her that he could 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:59.480 offer her a drink thirst. He could quench her thirst for something that is 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:03.480 beyond physical thirst. He was talking there about the thirst that every 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:07.319 single person has in the bottom of their soul for eternal life, for eternity. 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:11.319 Ecclesiastes 3. Every single human being, every single person here, every 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:16.519 single person in our city is thirsty, longing for eternal life. That's how God 00:05:16.519 --> 00:05:21.159 made us. And so we all need an encounter with Jesus. And that's what happened in 00:05:21.159 --> 00:05:26.519 the beginning of John chapter 4. And here in the back half of John 4 we learn 00:05:26.519 --> 00:05:31.479 about what that creates. When you have an encounter with Jesus, you become a 00:05:31.479 --> 00:05:35.839 minister of the gospel. And the reason we're talking about this, the reason we 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:40.839 long for this, the reason we're focused on this in our vision is because we are 00:05:40.839 --> 00:05:45.319 praying as a church, we're praying as leaders here, elders, deacons, women's 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:51.240 pastoral team. We want to see our city in the next generation, in the next 10 to 00:05:51.240 --> 00:05:55.560 20 years, move from 2 to 3 percent, meaningfully Christian followers of 00:05:55.560 --> 00:06:04.039 Jesus, to 10 percent or more. And that means adding 80,000 new believers, 80,000 00:06:04.039 --> 00:06:08.199 new Christians to see it move from 2 percent to 10 percent. And that's what 00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:11.519 we long for in this vision. That's what we're praying for. It takes many, many 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:16.959 churches. It takes many, many Christians and a movement of the spirit. And so to 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:21.240 do that, we need to have an every-person ministry focus and a public faith. 00:06:21.240 --> 00:06:24.919 That's the two things. Let's look at those two things. Every person ministry and 00:06:24.919 --> 00:06:31.319 public faith, it's right here in John 4, 27 to 42 that Billy read for us. So first, 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:36.240 the call to every person ministry, every follower of Jesus is a minister of the 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:44.160 gospel. Verse 27, we've got the woman at the well and she, as soon as she has this 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:48.439 encounter with Jesus and she comes to faith, she runs off into her village, 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:54.160 Sychar, to tell everybody. And if you jump down to verse 39, it says that when 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:58.920 she did that, many Samaritans from her town believed because of her, and here's 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:04.720 the word, testimony. Now the word testimony in Greek, this word here, is 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:11.120 martyrio, and it's where we get our English word martyr. So the martyrs, the 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:15.640 blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church as an example. So this is the word 00:07:15.640 --> 00:07:21.160 here. So the word martyr, a martyr, what's a martyr? A martyr is just a person who 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:25.960 gives testimony to Jesus, who bears witness. That's what the word here means. 00:07:25.960 --> 00:07:31.120 We'll see in a little while, while it got a greater connotation of suffering, 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:38.680 martyr, that word. But the point is simple, and it's just to say this today, when 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:44.840 you have a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ, you become a martyr, a 00:07:44.840 --> 00:07:49.480 witness. She had had a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ, and 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:54.319 immediately she ran into the town, her village, because she wanted to tell other 00:07:54.319 --> 00:08:00.800 people about it. Let us pray. No, you don't get off that easy. We're not done. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:04.879 But that's the point today. That's it. When you have a life- 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:11.960 encounter with Jesus, you become a witness. It's just a fact. It's an 00:08:11.960 --> 00:08:17.360 identity that actually becomes you. And one of the ways that's especially 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:23.680 highlighted here is the way that John laid out the story for us, which we find 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:30.040 in the book of John in and Mark's Gospel. It's often like this. If you look at last 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:33.519 week, we looked at verses 1 to 30, all about this encounter with the woman at 00:08:33.519 --> 00:08:38.120 the well. And then if you look at verse 39 to 42, again, it's all about the woman 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:43.960 and what she did. But right in the middle, it's all about the disciples. So 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:49.800 it's the woman unnamed, the disciples, and we know all their names, and then the 00:08:49.800 --> 00:08:56.600 woman again. And so it's a sandwich in fancy Bible terminology. We call that an 00:08:56.600 --> 00:09:01.399 inclusio, a sandwich. And there's bread on the outside and there's meat in the 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:05.040 middle. And that means that you're looking at the meat in the middle. John's 00:09:05.040 --> 00:09:10.040 pointing you to that. And what is he saying when he does that? She had had 00:09:10.040 --> 00:09:14.279 this life-transforming encounter and then the disciples come back to the well 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:19.759 in verse 27. They had been away gathering lunch. So Jesus had said, go to 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:26.679 Sychar, get some lunch, bring it back. So they went, they got some lunch, some bread, 00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:30.000 and they brought it back. And here they are. And it says in verse 27 that when 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:35.840 they came back to the well, they saw Jesus and her together. And the ESV says 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:41.120 they marveled that he was talking with a woman. But no one dared say anything 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:46.639 about it. So they dared not say, what do you seek? I like the King James version. 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:52.279 It says they dared not say, what seekest thou? They dared not say, why, why 00:09:52.279 --> 00:09:58.679 does dust thou talk to her? They dared not. They kept it in their heart. They 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:03.399 wanted to. Why? Because they felt very, it's saying that they felt so awkward. They 00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:07.439 came back and they saw him talking to her. And there was this incredibly awkward 00:10:07.439 --> 00:10:11.439 encounter. And what it's saying is that they felt like this was inappropriate. 00:10:11.439 --> 00:10:16.159 They saw him talking to this woman in the middle of the day by themselves and in 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:20.240 the first century this was to them wildly inappropriate. And they didn't 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:23.959 want to say a word about it. And the very next thing Jesus does is tells them 00:10:23.959 --> 00:10:29.399 this parable, this proverb about harvesting and yielding crops and things 00:10:29.399 --> 00:10:34.079 like that. And he's doing that for a reason because he's taking her and 00:10:34.079 --> 00:10:40.360 contrasting her with them. That's why the sandwich is there. You've got her, you've 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:44.480 got the disciples, and then you've got her again. And in the middle, in the 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:49.519 middle, Jesus gives them this little parable right after they're so upset. 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:53.200 They think this was so inappropriate. And in verse 32 they say, Jesus, you know, 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:57.560 you're tired, you're hungry, why don't you just eat? And he says this, I've got food 00:10:57.560 --> 00:11:01.639 to eat that you don't know about. And he's picking up there on Deuteronomy 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:07.639 chapter 8 verse 3 where we read Moses saying, look, there's spiritual 00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:12.080 food and there's physical food. And Jesus says, I've got spiritual food that you 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:15.240 don't know about. And he goes on and says, the spiritual food that you don't 00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:20.320 know about is I came to do my Father's will. And so Jesus immediately shifts the 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:25.920 conversation to the category of mission. I came, do you not know that I take such 00:11:25.920 --> 00:11:30.920 delight and pleasure? My bread is the word. He's just told her, I can give you 00:11:30.920 --> 00:11:35.520 water, whereby you will never be thirsty again, water of life. And now he says, now 00:11:35.520 --> 00:11:40.879 we've got bread on the table. And he said, look, my bread is to do the will of the 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:45.399 Father. And then he says, and you know what? Disciples, the field is white for 00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:52.200 harvest and I have sent you to reap what you did not sow. And it's a little 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:56.120 confusing maybe at first glance, but what is he saying? He's saying, don't you know 00:11:56.120 --> 00:12:02.120 that while you were out getting bread, I was, I was, I went into the harvest. I 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:07.080 came to do my mission, the mission. My life is all about the mission that the 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:10.639 Father sent me to. And he said, and you know what? I've already sent you to the 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:15.480 harvest as well. And what is he saying? He's saying, the disciples don't see it. 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:21.240 He had already commissioned every one of these named men and none of them had any 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:26.639 mission mindset. None of them saw themselves as a martyr, as a witness, as a 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:30.759 person who went into the village to bear testimony. They just went into the village 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:34.720 of Sychar and they didn't say a word to anybody. They got the bread and came back. 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:41.519 But they added, when she, this woman, poor, unnamed, has an encounter with Jesus 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:45.200 immediately in verse 39, we learn she went straight to the village to bear 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:50.080 witness. And Jesus is saying, disciples, the field is white for harvest and none of 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:54.000 you are going out to reap anything. None of you are going out to share with 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.800 every single type of person that I've sent you to, the fact that the Messiah has 00:12:57.800 --> 00:13:01.160 come into the world. But this woman, as soon as she has an encounter, she goes 00:13:01.159 --> 00:13:06.000 straight to the town, the village. And that means that what's happening here is 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:10.559 that the disciples show back up at the well. They see this woman in verse 27. 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:16.120 They dislike her. They think that she, it is socially inappropriate for Jesus to 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:20.839 be talking her. There is a racial barrier, a gender barrier, a religion barrier, and 00:13:20.839 --> 00:13:25.720 quite frankly, an encounter that they think is publicly inappropriate by way 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:29.639 of a man speaking with a woman at the well in the middle of the day. And they 00:13:29.639 --> 00:13:36.439 can't break through that. And Jesus says, you know what? She is your school master. 00:13:36.439 --> 00:13:42.279 She's the one who's here to teach you. She had an encounter with the Messiah 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:46.120 and she ran straight to the village to testify to bear witness and none of the 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:51.519 disciples saw it. They couldn't see it. And that means it's a simple point, but 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:54.879 she was showing them, she was showing them as an example that every single 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:59.319 person who has an encounter with Jesus becomes a minister of the gospel. And so 00:13:59.320 --> 00:14:04.760 here we talk about ministers and this can be confusing language. Ordained 00:14:04.760 --> 00:14:09.040 ministers, people who have been set apart, called by the Holy Spirit to lead a 00:14:09.040 --> 00:14:12.760 church as an officer of a church. We have that and I serve in that role and 00:14:12.760 --> 00:14:19.560 others do as well. But every single Christian is a minister of the gospel. 00:14:19.560 --> 00:14:24.480 Every single Christian. Every single Christian is a martyr, a witness. And so 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:29.920 today friends, if you have had an encounter with Jesus Christ, it is 00:14:29.920 --> 00:14:36.200 who you are. And the disciples couldn't yet see it, but this unnamed woman, she 00:14:36.200 --> 00:14:42.279 saw it. And I think that's a simple invitation today. One is to see that here 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:47.120 the word testimony to testify to bear witness martyred them. It's exactly the 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:52.000 same Greek word that Jesus uses in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 when he says in his 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:58.600 commission, you church will be my witnesses, my testifiers, my martyrs 00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:03.600 from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the very ends of the earth all the way 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:08.039 to this little end of the earth we have here, the city of Edinburgh. And that's 00:15:08.039 --> 00:15:14.360 that's the language he uses. And we come this morning to testify, to be martyrs, 00:15:14.360 --> 00:15:19.200 to testify to him in worship and then go out into the world and testify to him 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:23.800 as well. Let me bring this home. I think one of the ways to think about this is 00:15:23.800 --> 00:15:31.320 that this is an invitation today to ask the question, do I do I I'm asking this 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:35.520 question to myself this week. Do I approach Christianity largely as a 00:15:35.520 --> 00:15:41.800 consumer, largely as a person who comes here as a follower of Jesus week by week 00:15:41.800 --> 00:15:47.680 and if you're not a Christian today, this is not for you, but I'll come around 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:52.159 in just a minute to everybody else. But if you're a follower of Jesus day friend, 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:59.239 the question, do you come to this space largely as a consumer? And the nature of 00:15:59.239 --> 00:16:04.039 the gospel is this, that Jesus Christ gave everything, He gave himself fully away, 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:09.159 you get everything in the gospel, pardon a living relationship with God, to then 00:16:09.159 --> 00:16:16.199 be sent, to then go then to give, to serve, and even worship is that space. So in 00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:21.120 worship we come not merely to get, oh no. And so one of the questions maybe we can 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:26.400 ask this week is, is the posture I come to even in the worship space one of mere 00:16:26.400 --> 00:16:32.360 receipt, mere receiving, or do I come actually to give first glory to the 00:16:32.360 --> 00:16:37.600 living God? And so the idea, the logic of this space is that because Jesus has 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:41.200 given everything to you already, you come today to lose your time, to lose your 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:45.640 treasures, to give away your goods, to give glory to the living God. And then 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:48.600 when you go out, because Jesus is giving you everything and has given you 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:53.720 everything, you give yourself away to the witness, the martyrdom that you're 00:16:53.720 --> 00:16:59.559 called to in this city. And I love what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says about this, he 00:16:59.559 --> 00:17:02.879 talks about the distinction between a person that's been transformed by the 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:08.160 gospel through and through and cheap grace. And cheap grace is where we come 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:13.480 to get, but never to give, never to count the cost, never to say Christianity 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:18.240 really does cost me something. I've got to change my life in response to him. I've 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:23.759 got to become a witness in response to him. I heard, I don't know where I heard 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:28.319 this first, but you've heard this quote probably, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the late 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:32.720 Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, I first heard him say it, he said, in the age of Amazon, 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:39.000 the world is no longer our home, it has become our market. And in the same way 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:43.640 because we live in the age of Amazon all the time, we can come to 00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:50.039 treat everything as a market. And let me just say to everyone here that we're 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:54.240 not selling anything, Christianity sells nothing, we don't have anything for sell 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:59.920 here, because the Christian life, the Christian life is the call to see that 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:07.039 Jesus Christ saw you all the way to the bottom yet loves you to the sky. And, and 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:11.960 go and give your life away for him. A deep cost, nothing cheap about it, nothing 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:19.159 for sale. Gavin Ortland puts it like this, I love this quote from Gavin, he 00:18:19.159 --> 00:18:25.079 says, pursuing our own glory in this life, consumption, a mere life of 00:18:25.079 --> 00:18:30.279 consumption is pathetic and boring, but seeking the glory of Jesus Christ is the 00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:35.039 most thrilling and thralling adventure you could ever spend your life on. 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:41.319 Everybody is living as a consumer in this world, that is boring, we're all doing it, 00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:44.680 everybody's doing it, do something different, he says. The most enthralling, 00:18:44.680 --> 00:18:49.119 thrilling thing you can do is give yourself away as a witness in every 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:53.799 person ministry for the sake of a citywide movement of the gospel. Now the 00:18:53.799 --> 00:18:59.240 Samaritan woman saw that she got it so secondly and finally she exhibited a 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:03.639 public faith, what does that look like, what is it, what is a testimony, what does 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:07.160 it mean to testify, that's what we learn about here. And so let me, let me give you 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:11.560 four quick things that it looks like to have public faith that we learn from 00:19:11.560 --> 00:19:18.160 her today and will be finished. The first thing to notice here about her public 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:25.360 faith is that it's simple and there's I think two types of simplicity. The first 00:19:25.360 --> 00:19:30.120 is when you look at verse 39 it says that many Samaritans from her town, her 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:35.119 hometown believed in Jesus because of her testimony and what does she say, she 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:40.679 just said this, he told me all that I ever did. And just note the simplicity of 00:19:40.679 --> 00:19:45.719 living a real public faith from her example. There she did not, she did not 00:19:45.719 --> 00:19:49.000 go into her village with a sermon, she did not go into her village with an 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:55.239 elaborate method, she did not go into her village handing out tracks, those can 00:19:55.239 --> 00:19:59.119 all be okay things but she didn't do any of that, she didn't have a program, she 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:03.599 didn't have a track, she didn't have a sermon. She went simply to the people 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:08.679 that she knew and she was actually just herself. And so the first thing to say 00:20:08.679 --> 00:20:11.479 about public faith is public faith is just being yourself. 00:20:11.479 --> 00:20:16.759 Follower of Jesus, go into the city and be yourself. In other words, live a life 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:22.199 in the way of prayer, gospel-centered life and then just be yourself, be honest. 00:20:22.199 --> 00:20:26.839 So I think the simple thing to say here is that public faith first as opposed to 00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:34.159 private faith is simply honest faith. And that's no beating people over the head. 00:20:34.159 --> 00:20:39.720 It's responsible witness and responsible witness is always being ready to give an 00:20:39.720 --> 00:20:44.159 answer for the hope that is within you. I think even from the life of Jesus here 00:20:44.159 --> 00:20:47.919 when he encounters the woman at the well, you can see that Jesus went to the 00:20:47.919 --> 00:20:53.039 woman at the well and just all he did was asked for a cup of water and then she 00:20:53.039 --> 00:20:57.200 initiated a conversation about the meaning of life. And he took that 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:03.359 opportunity, he responded to that. And responsible witness testimony 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:07.879 martyred him in the most technical sense of the word, is simply going out into 00:21:07.879 --> 00:21:11.639 the city with honest faith. With just being who you are, looking for 00:21:11.639 --> 00:21:17.240 opportunity to say something about Jesus when the opportunity arises. It's an 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:21.879 honest public faith. One writer, when he writes about this, he says, here's the 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:28.440 opposite of that, the way to fail. As he says, the way to fail at this is to be a 00:21:28.440 --> 00:21:34.440 Christian and to hide who you are. And the question here today is if Jesus Christ 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:39.960 is the way that you structure your life, if Jesus Christ is the one from whom you 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:44.720 make your decisions, if Jesus is really the center of your life, then sharing 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:48.560 your life with other people will come out. It has to. If you're just honest about 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:53.839 who you are, if Jesus really is the center of your life, then it has to come 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:58.879 out. If you're just being honest about who you are. But, and here's the hard part, 00:21:58.879 --> 00:22:05.119 if Christ never comes up, if Jesus never comes up in our lives, the question 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:09.799 today, the diagnostic question is, is Jesus Christ really essential to us as 00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:14.639 he ought to be? If we're living a life of public faith, is he really essential to 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:19.840 us as he ought to be? The second thing here to note about public faith is a 00:22:19.840 --> 00:22:25.520 second type of simplicity is just very practical. Jesus simplicity as it has 00:22:25.520 --> 00:22:30.040 been called. What does she say when she goes into her town? She says, come and see 00:22:30.040 --> 00:22:36.280 a man who told me all that I ever did, verse 29. And then again, he told me all 00:22:36.280 --> 00:22:43.520 that I ever did. So she said in her town, come and see a man, Jesus, who told me all 00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:48.240 that I ever did. It's important to say, I think, that she does not know very much 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:54.200 about him. She does not have the epistles. You know, she doesn't have the rest of the 00:22:54.200 --> 00:22:58.799 gospel. She doesn't have the cross at her back. That hasn't happened yet. She 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:02.720 actually does not know very much about him. And one of the things that you think, 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:08.359 I think we see that so striking is yet Jesus upholds her as an example of true 00:23:08.359 --> 00:23:13.359 testimony. And that means that there's just a Jesus simplicity. What do you take 00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:21.079 to the city? You just take Jesus, just Jesus simplicity. And you can go out into 00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:27.519 the city and say, you know, I don't know very much about the age of the earth. And 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:32.519 you know what? Nobody does. That's the truth, because we change it every year, 00:23:32.519 --> 00:23:37.439 the consensus. How old is the world? I don't know. And nobody knows. And you 00:23:37.439 --> 00:23:40.359 might not know very much about science. You might not know very much about 00:23:40.359 --> 00:23:45.119 philosophy. And you might not have your answers ready for what to do with 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:49.240 sections of the book of Judges when it comes up, right? This woman didn't know 00:23:49.240 --> 00:23:54.639 any of that. And she just went out into the city with Jesus simplicity. And what 00:23:54.639 --> 00:23:58.279 is it? What's the content here? What is she exactly saying when she said, come and 00:23:58.279 --> 00:24:03.039 see a man who told me all I ever did? She's not literally saying, Jesus, you know, 00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:07.879 set with me for so long day after day and told me everything I'd ever done in my 00:24:07.880 --> 00:24:13.760 life. You know, that would be impossible. What is she saying? She's saying, he told 00:24:13.760 --> 00:24:17.840 me about the situation that I'd been living in. Jesus had said to her, I know 00:24:17.840 --> 00:24:21.240 that you have had five different husbands and the man you're living with 00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:25.240 right now is not your husband. In other words, she's saying, he told me the 00:24:25.240 --> 00:24:31.200 deepest secrets of my heart. And he loved me anyway. That's what she went and 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:34.720 told them. That's the implication here. She went into her village and said, let me 00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:40.000 tell you about a man who saw me all the way to the bottom in every bit of my 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.200 ugliness and loved me all the way to the sky anyway. She went out with Jesus 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:47.480 simplicity. She said, look, there are secret sins and misdeeds dark down in the 00:24:47.480 --> 00:24:52.360 bottom of my soul that nobody knows about. And is that true of you? Have you made 00:24:52.360 --> 00:24:56.720 mistakes? Are there things in your life you don't want other people to know 00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:03.120 about? Is there guilt? Is there shame? She went into the city and said, let me tell 00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:07.279 you about a man who knew every bit of that about me and said, I love you and I 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:11.119 want to give you eternal life. Jesus simplicity. That's all you can say 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:13.839 today. You know, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can tell people 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:20.279 about Jesus and she didn't know anything. She didn't know anything. And we can. We 00:25:20.279 --> 00:25:26.679 can. We can go and bring Jesus simplicity. Third afford. The third thing we say here 00:25:26.680 --> 00:25:33.320 is that she had a public faith that was courageous beyond her culture. And so 00:25:33.320 --> 00:25:39.920 here, remember back to verse 27, the disciples come to this encounter with 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:44.880 Jesus and her at the well and they are so awkward by the cultural barrier that 00:25:44.880 --> 00:25:50.320 they just keep it quiet. So they feel actually offended by Jesus in this 00:25:50.320 --> 00:25:55.039 moment. They think that he's done something inappropriate, crossing every 00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:57.960 single one of these cultural barriers, but they don't. They're not even 00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:03.440 courageous enough to ask their rabbi, their savior a question to say, Lord, 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:07.639 help us understand. They're not even courageous enough to do that. They just 00:26:07.639 --> 00:26:12.960 suppress it in awkwardness. And then you get to verse 39 and remember this 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:16.799 woman. Do you remember that from last week if you were here, she came to the 00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:21.680 well at the middle of the day by herself when it's normally the case that the 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:25.440 women would come together to the well in the mornings and evenings. And that 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:31.480 means that though she was separated from Jesus by religion, by race, by gender, in 00:26:31.480 --> 00:26:36.640 every category, she was also completely separated from her own people. She was an 00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:39.799 outcast amongst her own people. That's why she's at the well in the middle of 00:26:39.799 --> 00:26:45.160 the day. And she goes straight to her hometown to every single person she 00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:49.480 knows and says, let me tell you about a man who told me all I ever did come and 00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:54.599 see him. She broke through every cultural barrier that was at 00:26:54.599 --> 00:26:59.680 place between her and the people that she knew. And you've got to believe, you've 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:05.160 got to believe that because she's clearly an outcast in her town, she would 00:27:05.160 --> 00:27:10.120 have come to her town and they would have said, nobody listens to her. Look at 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:14.720 what is she on about? And we're going to see this in just a moment as we close in 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:19.240 verse 40. She started a city-wide movement of the gospel. She broke through 00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:23.160 every cultural barrier. Why? Because Jesus Christ had broken through every 00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:29.480 barrier with her. And when you see that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 00:27:29.480 --> 00:27:34.079 the Son of God himself, loves you, knows you to the bottom and yet loves you to 00:27:34.079 --> 00:27:38.359 the sky to the point that he became flesh. He humbled himself all the way to 00:27:38.359 --> 00:27:42.240 the point of being willing to die in your place. He broke through every barrier. 00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:47.400 And the greatest barrier was him going down to hell itself at the cross. 00:27:47.400 --> 00:27:52.080 Boy, can we break through barriers? Can we? Can we? Because we've received so much 00:27:52.080 --> 00:27:56.280 now go and break through a barrier to talk to somebody about Jesus, to say, 00:27:56.280 --> 00:28:00.640 let me tell you about a man who knew me and all my guilt and all my shame and 00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:05.000 yet loved me right through it, loved me to the point to die for me. 00:28:05.840 --> 00:28:10.600 The fourth and the final thing we see here is that she did indeed, through 00:28:10.600 --> 00:28:14.800 the Holy Spirit, start a city-wide movement of the gospel. She became 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:19.799 in very popular modern productivity language. She became a movement leader, 00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:25.599 as we say. Jesus used her, the Holy Spirit used her, this woman to such a 00:28:25.599 --> 00:28:32.799 degree that in verse 39 it says, many people believed because of her testimony. 00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:38.399 And then many Samaritans came out to him and they said, please stay with us. 00:28:38.399 --> 00:28:43.599 And so he did. And then it says in verse 41, and so many more believed because 00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:48.199 of his word. And they said to the woman, it's no longer because you told us to 00:28:48.199 --> 00:28:52.000 believe that we believe, it's because we encountered him and now we believe. 00:28:52.599 --> 00:28:59.199 And here we see just a very simple thing that the Lord loves to actually bless 00:28:59.199 --> 00:29:04.199 the witness of his people. And so when we go and we do share the gospel with 00:29:04.199 --> 00:29:08.599 other people, the Lord by the Spirit loves to say yes to that and loves to 00:29:08.599 --> 00:29:12.799 start city-wide movements of the gospel amongst the people we know. Let me close 00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:21.799 with this. What do we need today? What do all of us need today to break through? 00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:28.399 We need to break through and to say, I am a witness. I'm a testifier. I've come 00:29:28.399 --> 00:29:31.399 to give glory to the Lord in worship so that I can be strengthened to go and 00:29:31.399 --> 00:29:37.200 give glory testimony to the Lord Jesus outside this building in our city. 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:40.399 What do we need to break through? And let me just give you two things to close. 00:29:40.400 --> 00:29:47.200 We need the freedom and purpose that she had. And I think the first thing to say 00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:52.400 is simply this. She had a real freedom that was given to her by this gracious 00:29:52.400 --> 00:29:57.200 encounter she had with Jesus. One more time, final time, what did she say? 00:29:58.200 --> 00:30:05.200 Come and see a man that told me all that I ever did. The only way that we're ever 00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:10.400 going to be people who make witnessing, testifying, bringing our testimony to 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:16.799 other people in our lives a spiritual discipline, a regular encounter. The only 00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:20.799 way that's ever going to happen is if we really do have a fresh encounter with 00:30:20.799 --> 00:30:27.000 the gospel where we can say, he really is a man who saw me all the way to the 00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:34.200 worst and loved me anyway. In other words, if you really do have an experience 00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:38.400 of the gospel in your life and you really do know yourself as a sinner, if you 00:30:38.400 --> 00:30:44.400 really can say today, Jesus knows me at my worst yet loves me all the way to 00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:49.200 making me into my best, conforming me to the image of the Sun. Ultimately, one 00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:56.200 day, if you can say that, then you can go out into the city risk-free. You 00:30:56.200 --> 00:31:01.299 have the assurance of love that can never be taken from you. You can know 00:31:01.299 --> 00:31:04.799 that no matter what somebody else thinks about me, I know what he thinks about me. 00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:10.599 And so I'm okay. I'm willing to lose a relationship. I'm willing in a responsible 00:31:10.599 --> 00:31:14.799 wise manner to go and extend myself to somebody so that they would know about 00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:19.299 him because he knows me to the bottom and loves me to the sky. You can say 00:31:19.299 --> 00:31:24.799 that, you can say today, because I am his treasure, I'm not afraid of losing 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:30.299 treasures in this life. And the second and final thing is I think a freedom that 00:31:30.299 --> 00:31:34.099 we all need that's brought to us by conviction. And so the very last thing 00:31:34.099 --> 00:31:39.599 and the very end of the passage, when the Samaritans came in verse 42 to see 00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:43.899 Jesus, they said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we 00:31:43.899 --> 00:31:50.299 believe, we have seen for ourselves and now we know that he really is the saviour 00:31:50.299 --> 00:31:54.500 of the world. He indeed is the saviour of the world. Let me just highlight one word 00:31:54.500 --> 00:32:00.799 there. The Samaritans came to him and they said now we can say he really is the 00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:04.900 saviour of the world. He indeed is the saviour of the world. And I just wonder 00:32:04.900 --> 00:32:12.220 today, you could be a person here, a Christian, a follower of Jesus who feels 00:32:12.220 --> 00:32:17.460 with me today the struggle to say I am a witness, who feels with me today the 00:32:17.460 --> 00:32:21.980 struggle to say God really has commissioned me to go and tell somebody 00:32:21.980 --> 00:32:25.579 else, let me tell you about a man who knows me to the bottom, loves me to the 00:32:25.579 --> 00:32:30.579 sky, come and see. And maybe one of the ways to break through that is that we all 00:32:30.579 --> 00:32:35.420 need such a fresh encounter with Jesus in our weekly life and our day-to-day life 00:32:35.420 --> 00:32:41.740 today where we could be enabled to say he really is the saviour of the world. Not 00:32:41.740 --> 00:32:47.819 just I come to church and I'm you know he is, but to say he really is. And I 00:32:47.819 --> 00:32:52.659 think for some of us that might mean coming again and re-exploring the 00:32:52.659 --> 00:32:57.700 claims of Jesus. You could have been a Christian in this room for 20, 30, 40, 00:32:57.700 --> 00:33:04.259 50, 60 years and it may be time to come and say I actually need to re-investigate, 00:33:04.259 --> 00:33:10.099 to actually process intellectually, emotionally, and through my volitional will 00:33:10.099 --> 00:33:14.779 the claims of Christianity again. Not because I'm walking away, not because I'm 00:33:14.779 --> 00:33:18.259 doubting, but because I need to be reignited, I need to be fueled, I need to 00:33:18.259 --> 00:33:22.619 be able to say he really is. Have you done that before? Have you, if you've grown 00:33:22.619 --> 00:33:25.539 up in the church, have you broken through the cultural barriers that are in place 00:33:25.539 --> 00:33:30.779 in your life and come to explore the claims of Christianity, is he really the 00:33:30.779 --> 00:33:36.099 saviour of the world? He really is the living water, he really is the bread of 00:33:36.099 --> 00:33:41.420 life. And so for a city-wide movement of the gospel may we go forward as his 00:33:41.420 --> 00:33:48.340 witnesses. Let us pray. Father, we thank You for this word and we ask now that You 00:33:48.340 --> 00:33:53.580 would give us an every-person ministry and a living public faith, not out of 00:33:53.580 --> 00:33:58.900 guilt, Lord know, but by a fresh encounter with the gospel. And so we pray for 00:33:58.900 --> 00:34:13.380 this in Jesus' name. Amen.