We are at John 4 - starting at verse 1 - the next event in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  Going on in our study of the first 4 chapters of the Gospel of John.

This morning Jesus is going to take His disciples - and us - on a field trip.   Which works well for us - being about 3 weeks into the new school year.

As we’ve been studying the first four chapters of John - we along with the disciples and John’s readers - having been learning about Jesus.  The history and truth behind what we believe and what all that can mean for us as we do life in real time.

Over the past 3 chapters we’ve looked at what is the astounding reality of Jesus - God - who has come into humanity - the Word becoming flesh and taking our place on the cross - dying in our place for our sins.  And bodily living again - His resurrection giving us hope of life now and forever with God.

The astounding reality that anyone can come to Jesus as their Savior - just as we are.  Just come.  If we do - God the Holy Spirit enters into us making us spiritually alive towards God.  Begins a work of transformation - taking us from who we were - as ugly as that might have been - and transforming us into the people that God has created us to be.

So that we actually get to live lives that have real meaning and purpose.  We get to lift up - to exalt - to glorify Jesus.  To testify about what God is doing in our lives and lead others to Him.

The question is:  “What can all that look like for me?”  Which is what our field trip is about.

In chapter 4 we’re on the bus with Jesus.  Remember riding on school buses?  For some of us that may be a more way back memory than for others.  Jesus is teaching Evangelism 101 and we’re off on a field trip.

Let’s jump into the text.  John 4 - starting at verse 1:  Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself did not baptize, but only His disciples), He left Judea and departed again for Galilee.  And He had to pass through Samaria.  So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as He was from His journey, was sitting beside the well.  It was about the sixth hour.

Let’s pause there.  These verses are The Setting of the field trip.  John calls our attention to four things.

First - Jesus heads off towards Galilee because there’s a growing potential for conflict with the Pharisees in Judea.  His ministry was attracting attention for the wrong reasons.

The Pharisees were already stressing over the ministry of John the Baptist.  What John was doing and why.  But now Jesus’ ministry is growing bigger than John’s.  And there appears to be some controversy and conflict between the two ministries - at least that’s what it looks like from Jerusalem.

Last Sunday - we looked at John the Baptist and an issue that came up with John’s disciples who were struggling with the rising popularity of Jesus’ ministry.  John’s disciples were getting bent out of shape because Jesus’ disciples were baptizing more people than John - the old numbers game.  Sides are being chosen.  All of which the Pharisees don’t seem to understand.

Jesus - knowing all that - and knowing that the time has not yet come for Him to square off with the Pharisees.  He will.  Especially in the week of ministry leading to the cross.  When that confrontation will serve Jesus’ purposes.  But now is not the time.  So, Jesus chooses to head north.

Second - John calls our attention to the unusual route Jesus took to go north.  Helpful if we see this on a map.

The direct route north from Jerusalem to Galilee - what is the purple arrow there - is about a 70 mile route that would take about 2 1/2 days walk.  The Jews instead opted for the longer route - what is the pinkish arrow there.  The route down to the Jordan River and up the valley and on into Galilee.  What was a hotter - more uncomfortable - route that was about twice as long.

The reason the Jews took the longer route we know is because the Jews... despised the Samaritans.  Legendary animosity - disgust - prejudice.  To the Jews, the Samaritans were idolatrous mongrels that were morally depraved and messed up religiously.

The reason behind all that - briefly - the history behind all that animosity is that when most of the Jews were exiled into Assyria - in 722 BC - a small remnant of Jews remained in the northern territory - think Samaria.  Those remnant Jews intermarried with Gentiles that were brought in from other countries.  Meaning mixed marriages - mixed religions - mixed cultures - mixed morals.  Meaning that when the other Jews returned from exile there were issues with the Jews that had stayed.

Point being that what’s behind those two routes is a deep seated - going back generations long - animosity.  Jews - especially the most godly of all Jews, the Pharisees - would never set foot in Samaria - let alone actually talk with “one of those.”

In the midst of John’s point about routes, John tells us - verse 4 - that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria.”  It would be easy to almost miss that emphasis on need.  But that “had to” is huge.

The Greek verb has the idea of “it was necessary.”  While others “had to” avoid Samaria to avoid contamination Jesus “had to” go there.  To choose the wrong route for the right reasons. 

The third thing John calls our attention to is the place where Jesus stopped.  We need to be reminded that this spot is significant historically to both the Jews and the Samaritans.

Where Jesus chooses to stop is the land that Jacob - who’s later renamed Israel by God - Jacob a revered patriarch of the Hebrews - Jacob purchased this land that he gave as an inheritance to his sons.  It was the place where Joseph’s bones were buried after they were brought up out of Egypt during the Exodus.  It was in the valley between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal that God’s people reaffirmed their commitment to obey God - where the blessings and curses of the law were read.

About 1/2 mile west of the village of Sychar is where Jacob dug a well for his flocks and herds.  Which is the well where Jesus stops.

The fourth thing that John calls our attention to is the timing when all this took place. 

Verse 6 - “It was about the sixth hour.”  Meaning - in the way that the Hebrews kept track of time - it was about 12 o’clock noon.  Midday.  Which becomes significant as we’re introduced to the woman who comes to the well.

In processing the setting we need to see Jesus being very intentional in where He’s come and stopped with His disciples and when He’s chosen to stop there.

Let’s go on and read through verses 7 to 26 - which is The Conversation that takes place between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman - and then we’ll come back and make a few observations.  Hang on to something - take a deep breath - and let’s read together:

A woman from Samaria came to draw water.  Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”  (For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food).  The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”  (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’  you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”  The woman said to Him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.  Where do you get that living water?  Are you greater than our father Jacob?  He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”  Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”  Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”  The woman answered Him, “I have no husband.”  Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.  What you have said is true.”  The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”  Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and now is here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.  God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  The woman said to Him, “I know that the Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ).  When he comes, he will tell us all things.”  “Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Whew.  Still breathing?  Have many of you have heard or read through this conversation before?  Pretty familiar.

Chuck Swindoll in his commentary on this passage breaks this conversation down into six cycles.  Which you can see on the screen.  Which is helpful in moving through this conversation in a way that makes practical sense.  Six times Jesus engages this woman.  Six times she responds to Jesus.  Six times the conversation they have goes around.

Let’s unpack those cycles and make a few helpful observations.

Cycle number one begins with John telling us that a Samaritan women makes the 1/2 mile trip out from Scyhar to the well.  Notice that she comes alone rather than in a group - which would have been safer.  Notice that she arrives at the sixth hour.  Which is… noon.  Not the hottest part of the day.  But its warming up.  Not the best time to be hauling heavy jars of water around.  Point being she’s out there by herself and that’s not an accident.  She is a moral outcast either choosing to be alone or made to be alone.  

John also tells us that the disciples have gone into town to get lunch.  Which means that Jesus has set this up so that this lone woman coming to the well is going to meet a strange man not a group of strange men.  Way less intimidating.  And with His disciples in town, Jesus - who has nothing to draw water with - actually needs the help of this woman.

Jesus initiates the conversation - asks for water - not out of arrogance - or a command - but out of kindness.  The New Living paraphrase translates this as “Please give me a drink.”  Which is more to the feeling behind what Jesus said.

Her response is defensive.  She’s shocked.  As a Jew - there’s no way He should have spoken to this Samaritan.  Jesus - especially as a rabbi - rabbis were instructed never to speak with a woman in public - not even your wife or your sister. 

The tone of her question is something like:  “What are You doing asking me for a drink?  I am so far beneath you - as a Samaritan - as a woman.  You can’t toss barriers like that aside.”

Jesus breaks with the tradition of the day - the nonsensical customs of religion and culture - Jesus treats her with mutual respect - kindness.

Cycle two - Jesus appeals to her curiosity.  “If you only knew who you were talking to you’d be asking Me for a drink and I’d have given you living water.” 

In the area of Samaria where they’re at - Jesus’ intentional setting - where they’re at there are no rivers - no major water supply.  Either you’ve got a well or you’ve got nothing.  What’s becoming a crucial issue around here.  How important is water?  In fact that’s why this woman has walked 1/2 mile out of town - alone - midday.  For water.

The emphasis in Greek is on the “living” part of that water.  Which she picks up on.

“Where do you get that living water?” Is a question of how a person gets running water from a well with still water.  There’s curiosity in that.  But she’s not buying.  Her response is sarcastic.  

Jacob - remember Jesus’ intentional historical significance of the well.  Jacob dug the well.  Which was about 60 feet deep.  Jesus has got nothing - no rope - no bucket.  Nada.

“Gift of God?  Who do you think you are?  God’s gift to women?  Living water?  Are you greater than Jacob - the great patriarch of the Jews and Samaritans - offering us something greater than he did?  Dude, your rope is a few feet shy of the waterline.”

Cycle three - Jesus appeals to her spiritual need.

Jesus goes with her question - uses her question.  Living water - running - verses stagnant.  “Its not physical water I’m talking about.  Its water that will satisfy your deepest needs.  Drink this and you’ll never be thirsty again.”

Sin had ravaged this woman.  Her life was stagnant - spiritually and emotionally she’s stopped living.  She’s just existing in Sychar.  Like so many people today she’s just occupying space and waiting for death.  Trying somehow to fill the emptiness within and coming up empty.  Hopeless. 

Her response is denial.  To get refocused on the physical water and having to continually draw water from the well.  Like so of us when the conversation gets too close to home - too deep - we try to take the conversation back to the shallow end.  We don’t need to go to the deep end.  There’s enough we’re dealing with in the shallow end.  Let’s stay in the shallow end where we know we can exist with our delicate balancing of pain and issues.

“The real issue here is my having to come out here and draw water from this well every day because I’m thirsty.  Is your living water going to take care of that need?”

Cycle four - Jesus cuts through to her heart with a seemingly innocent personal interest question.  “Go, call your husband.”

Jesus knows all about this women’s history.  Her deep legitimate needs that she’s been trying desperately to satisfy by illegitimate means.  He knows about her sexual promiscuousness.  The men she’s been with.  He’s touching on her deepest need by giving her a personal dilemma to deal with.

She changes the subject.  “Nope.  No husband.  You wasted your turn.  Next subject.”

Cycle number five - Jesus appeals to her conscience.  “True.  But only half-true.  In fact there’ve been five husbands and you’re currently living with temporary guy number six that you’re not married to.”  

Jesus has just taken this conversation to a whole new - you must deal with this - level.  Welcome to the deep end. 

But let’s be careful.  Notice that Jesus - in taking this conversation below the level of surface chit chat - Jesus isn’t condemning or shaming this woman - pointing out her moral failure - exploiting her sin.  He’s just stating truth.  Let’s just deal with reality.   In fact, Jesus even commends her for her honesty.  “You are right in saying…”

Her response is what?  Introduce controversy.  She’s not feeling threatened enough to run away.  She’s engaged enough to play this out.  But, she’s not ready to deal with what Jesus is slowly bringing to the surface.

Jesus is a Rabbi.  Right?  A Jew.  Right?  “Oh.  Sir.  It is way obvious that you are a man of great religious understanding and training.  You’ve been to seminary.  You’re obviously very smart.  How do you reconcile man’s free will and God’s sovereignty?”  Only in her time and culture the issue was where to worship the every where present God.

Cycle six - Jesus doesn’t allow this women to distract Him from the reason He “had to” come to Sychar.  Jesus appeals to her need.  She needs what only Jesus can give her.

Way too often we fall for the sucker punch when we’re talking with people.  For some of us that’s a question about Bible knowledge.  There are other sucker punches.  Sports.  Politics.  Movies.  Knitting techniques.  Whatever gets us monologueing and off focus - why God intentionally created this moment and us for this moment.  The person we’re talking with needs Jesus. 

Jesus is focused.

Let’s remember that Jesus “had to” be here.  He took the wrong road north on purpose.  The well is like doing table.  The well is a location - a place to connect with this woman who seemingly randomly has shown up.  Water gets the conversation flowing.  Its a tool to connect with.  Soularium cards - candy.  The setting - Jesus’ timing - His God space - is perfect. 

Jesus is connecting.  He’s FARMing or FORMing.  He’s getting to know her.  But more so He’s allowed this women to see and feel what is His genuine concern for her as a person.  Not as an object like so many other men see her.  He’s treated her with kindness and respect and dignity and compassion.

Jesus - focused - Jesus uses her controversial question to bring her back on topic.  Its impressive how He thinks on His feet.

The earthly location of worship is not what’s most important.  The object of worship is all about heaven - not Samaria or Jerusalem.  This incredible historical spot is not what’s most important.  The quality of worship - see how He comes back to the heart - spiritual need - worship is in spirit and truth - what’s going on in your heart is what’s most important.

She tries one more time to not go there.  To delay having to deal with the issue.  The Samaritans expected the Messiah to be more like Moses was.  Someone who declared God’s truth and explained what God was talking about.

Her response is something like:  “Who can really know about things like that?  Until the Messiah actually comes we’re not going to know the answer to that question.  Until Jesus comes back why should we waste time thinking about stuff like that?  So, let’s move on.”

Which is where Jesus has been going in this conversation since before He left Jerusalem.

Verse 26 is the bottom line - what this whole conversation comes down to:  “Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

The Greek is even more emphatic.  Not to get lost in a word study.  But the Greek sentence puts the verb first.  The emphasis is on the “I am” part.  “I am the one speaking to you.”

It’s the same words in Greek that the Greek Old Testament uses to translate God’s self-disclosure to Moses.  “I am who I am.”  (Exodus 3:14).

Both the Jews and the Samaritans got it.  They understood.  It was these “I am” statements of Jesus that the religious leaders later used to accuse Jesus of blasphemy.

Jesus bypassing all the distractions - all the deflections - all the defenses - to lay out the ultimate truth in front of her.  “Right on.  Your wait is over.  I am the Messiah.”

She understood what Jesus was saying.  Jesus is claiming to be God.  God who has intentionally come to this deeply needy woman to offer her living water - life.  He is - Jesus is - the answer to her deepest need.  To our deepest need.

Are we together?

Let’s go on to The Return of the disciples.

Let’s read together - verse 27:  Just then His disciples came back.  They marveled that He was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”  So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.  Can this be the Christ?”  They went out of the town and were coming to Him.

Let’s pause there.  When the disciples got back they were amazed seeing Jesus talking with this Samaritan woman.  They’re speechless.  It may have been - probably was - an incredibly awkward moment.  In every way that a moment could be awkward.

The woman - for whom this is also awkward - seemingly forgets about getting water from the well.  She leaves her pot.  Heads back into town.  And starts talking to people about Jesus.

The way verse 29 reads in Greek there’s more behind what she’s saying that what she’s actually saying.  The question is actually expecting a negative answer.  “This can’t be the Christ?  Can it?”

The evidence she gives when she asks the question and the way she asks the question lets us know that she’s already made up her mind.  “Well, yes I believe He is the Christ.” 

The issues in their conversation that she was trying to avoid - all those details about her life - those actually are a confirmation of her spiritual hope.  He really is the Messiah.  Her testimony moves the town to seek out Jesus.

Let’s go on reading at verse 31:  Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”  But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”  So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him something to eat?”  Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.  Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest.  Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together.  For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’   I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.  Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor..”

That this conversation was recorded for us gives us a pretty good idea that - Jesus and His Evangelism 101 class - there was teaching that took place.  Jesus explaining what the disciples are seeing as they came back to the well - Jesus and the woman and what went on in that conversation.  How to step into God space.  Do clip board.  Table.  Or, in this case:  Well.  What we’ve been given a glimpse of.

John records two important lessons that Jesus also includes with that teaching.

First:  There are more important things in life than food.  Hard to imagine. 

There are more important things in life than clothing and shelter and water and sports and Xbox and Facebook and Disney and getting distracted by controversies that stroke our ego and on and on and on.  More important things than our little petty temporal focused on us immediate gratification needs getting met that really don’t mean a whole lot of nothing in the eternal working of God’s universe.

Obedience to the word of God - obedience to God’s leading is more important than food or immediate gratification or anything else that we might let get us off our God created for purpose in life.

Life is about… God.  Whatever we’re doing in life is to be about God’s purpose for giving us life and sustaining our lives.  Whatever we’re doing in life is to be about God’s purpose for saving us and transforming us and enabling us to be useful for Him.  Which is to glorify Him - to exalt Jesus.  Not us.  Him.

Second:  The time to harvest is now.  Not four months from now.

Which may run counter intuitive to our understanding of culture and religion and the methods of reaching the perishing with the Gospel.  Which may mean getting out of our box of understanding and comfort and timing.  Our hesitancies and hang ups.

The time to harvest is when God says its time to harvest not when we say its time to harvest.

Its God who prepares the harvest.  Its His harvest.  He knows who’s been sowing and laboring and how the crop is being prepared.  He understands what’s going on in the field infinitely better than we do.  He knows the timing and means of our working in that field.

God is continually placing before us huge and amazing and wonderful opportunities that are there if we would just be looking for them and allowing Him to lead us into them. 

In the words of the great Jean-Luc Picard.  Now is the time to “Engage.”  And to keep on harvesting until God says stop.

Are we together?

In verses 39 to 42 John records The Faith of the Samaritans.

Read with me:  Many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”  So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days.  And many more believed because of His word.  They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

John brings us back from the lecture to the living illustration.  Two observations.

First:  They’re ordinary people.

These are just plain ordinary reasonably normal people - if not a tad messed up.  People like us who are simply open to what God desires to do in them and through them.

This woman is not a trained - been to Bible school - theologian.  She’s just a new believer.  She doesn’t give a well ordered explanation or lead the town in some kind of sinners prayer.  She doesn’t have a tool like “Knowing God Personally.”  She even has trouble explaining what it is she believes - why she thinks Jesus is the Messiah.  She just reports on the encounter she had with Jesus and a whole town comes to Jesus.

The people of Sychar - the entire town of Sychar heads out to discover for themselves what this woman has been testifying about.  Unlike the trained religious leadership back guarding the Temple in Jerusalem - the place where people were suppose to worship God - these mongrel Samaritans welcomed Jesus and asked Him to teach.  The result was that “many more believed.”

Second observation:  They’re focused on Jesus.

Notice how the Scyharians come to Jesus because of what the woman says.  And then they come to believe in Him because of what He says.

This woman - like John the Baptist - knew when to get out of the way - to decrease - this woman steps aside.  For the town’s people - people coming to Jesus is all about Jesus - learning from Him.

It would be way too tempting for us to imagine that we are the end users of all that John has written and that God has blessed us with in understanding.  Believing these things and so trusting God with our lives - gaining the life that He gives us in Jesus - isn’t about us.  Its about testimony - exalting Jesus.  What God desires to do in us and through us to His glory.

Three brief points of application for us as we head out there.

Number one:  We need to let go of our prejudice.  Our Creator doesn’t rank us on a scale based on our worthiness - our ethnicity - our hang-ups - our intelligence - our body markings or piercings.  We are all unworthy of salvation and yet we are all equally loved by God.

Number two:  We need to let go of the routine details of life. 

Ultimately life isn’t about food or clothing or water or our schedule or how we make a living or our grades.  I realize I may be on thin ice with parents about the grades.  But, when was the last time you set that aside to share the Gospel with someone.  Isn’t eternity more important than the NFL?

Number three:  We need to let go of tomorrow. 

We have this attitude where we assume that tomorrow will come.  But while we’re finding excuses about harvesting people are dying and going into eternity without Jesus.  None of us knows if tomorrow will come. 

There are only two days that we need to be focused on.  The day that Jesus comes back.  Which is a coming day of judgment and a day of rejoicing - a day when days will no longer matter.

The other day we need to be focused on is today.  Right here and right now.  God has given us this day with purpose.  Not four months from now.  But now.

_________________________

General reference for this message:  “The Man Who Understood Women” - sermon shared by Ray Stedman from John 4:1-42, May 29, 1983 

General Reference for this series:  Charles R. Swindoll, “Insights On John:  Swindoll’s New Testament Insights,”  Zondervan, 2010

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.