Tabor Baptist Church

Introduction

• If you ever wanted proof that Jesus has a heart for different people - read John 3&4
• Story of Nicodemus
• Story of Samaritan Women
• A great contrast between these two people:
• Social standing
• Morality
• Name
• Sex
• Race
• Reputation
• Seeking Jesus
• Both people had the same need
• Quote from James Montgomery Boyce
• Why is Jesus in Samaria?
• He is on a journey from Judah (in the South) to Galilee (in the North)
• On this journey partly to avoid controversy
• Many religious people would not have taken this route although it was the most direct route (v9)
• It was necessary for Jesus to travel through Samaria (v4)
• God always intended for Jesus to meet this one particular individual - this women
• Example of the apostle Paul in Acts 16
• How many of us as Christians can identify with this?

The Grace Jesus Shows (v5-6)

• John is clear in the start of his gospel that Jesus is God
• These verses (in John 4) remind us that Jesus became a man
• He knew the same sort of frailties as mankind - Jesus became weary from His journey
• Jesus' actions would have been shocking to the strict religious Jew for three reasons:
1. He was speaking to a Samaritan (at all)
2. He was speaking to a woman
3. He was asking her for a drink
• The woman came to draw water from the well at midday - the sixth hour (v6)
• No-one would have drawn water at this time of day
• The women would have come to draw water in the early morning
• Why did the woman come to draw water at midday?
• Because she was a moral outcast
• Quote from Tim Kelland
• Jesus ignored the prejudices of the day
• Jesus cared for the needs of this woman
• He went out of His way to bring the gospel to her
• To the woman that His fellow Jews and even the people of her own society would have despised
• Are we the same in our churches?
• This woman's lifestyle doesn't stop Jesus reaching out to her
• Jesus is an example to us
• Their sins are uncomfortable to us be we realise that they are lost people before God

The Mistake Jesus Exposes (v9-12)

• On long journeys it was expected that traveling parties would draw water from wells on the way (they carried a bucket for this purpose)
• The disciples would likely have taken the bucket with them when they had gone into the town to by provisions
• Jacob's well is at least 100ft today, maybe deeper at that time
• Jesus had no way to draw the water
• The woman maybe thought that Jesus was speaking about some secret underground spring
• Jesus was using picture language to refer to the much greater and deeper longing that existed in her heart
• v13 - on the face of it, a pointless thing to say
• The woman knew why she had come to the well on that day - to get water
• Jesus is not speaking about physical water - He is speaking about her attempts to satisfy a need that exists deep in her soul
• Jesus knows things that cannot simply be explained by simple research
• She is seeking love in a series of different sexual relationships (v18)
• Jesus wants to expose the need that lies behind the sin
• She is looking for meaning and satisfaction in sex and companionship
• No-one wanted to be seen with this woman, but Jesus is not afraid to meet with her
• She is willing to risk becoming a social leper to find it [what she needs] - but going from man to man wasn't working
• This pattern is reflected in so many ways in our society
• Men and women are seeking to quench a thirst and satisfy a need that is only fulfilled by something deeper
• The longing people feel is for the God who created us
• People make the mistake that this deepest need can be satisfied by anything other than God
• Ultimately all these things will fail to bring us the happiness, satisfaction and joy which we seek

The Answer Jesus Gives (v14)

• The answer to those who thirst for these things - "I am the answer"
• Jesus alone is the one who is able to satisfy our deepest needs
• Only Jesus can give us what we truly long for - to make us complete human beings
• Jesus is not a kill joy
• He does not tell the woman to stop looking for happiness but to look in the right place
• Quote from CS Lewis
• When Jesus calls us to follow Him we are called to give up certain things
• Jesus commands this because if we make these things the ultimate in and of themselves, ultimately they will make us miserable
• 'We have tried the broken cisterns'
• Men and women seeking to fill a God sized hole with things that will never satisfy this deep need
• Jesus made us
• He alone knows what we need
• He is willing to give it to us
• He paid a great cost to give it to us
• Explanation of the sacrifice of Jesus to become a man, yet fully God
• He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief
• He was plunged into despair at the cross so that we can be plunged into the mountains of delight
• There is a condition
• We must drink of the water Jesus offers
• No rules to work through and keep
• No religious hoops to jump through
• Simply drink - simply take what He freely gives
• There is nothing more for us to do but receive what He has purchased for us
• No other conditions (except the implied sense of need and a willingness to accept it)