Lifestyle

“Fresh Encounters with Jesus” Part Five, John 4:5-34

February 25, 2007, Pastor Tom Marcum

In the cutthroat world of business, few challenges are more daunting than the prospect of going head to head with a dominant industry leader like Starbuck’s. Nonetheless, in 1992, some brave souls in Minneapolis did just that and opened up a local coffee house called, Caribou Coffee. Today, that single store has expanded to 416 locations. And one of the factors contributing to their success has been a marketing strategy featuring this clever slogan, “Life is short—stay awake for it!”

I like that. Don’t get sidetracked. Don’t waste a single day of this incredible gift of life. Life is short so, stay focused.

One of the things that we have noted in our journeys with Jesus these past few weeks is that Jesus was incredibly focused. His life was filled with the same kinds of experiences and challenges that fill our lives, but he never allowed those experiences and challenges to take his focus off of God’s eternal purposes for his life. Instead, he allowed God’s eternal purposes to shape and guide the way that he participated in the varied experiences of his life.

--So, a couple of weeks ago we watched him at a wedding party. And we saw that even in the midst of all of the festivities, he never lost sight of who he was or why he was here. He stayed focused.

--Last week, we watched his encounter with Nicodemus—a highly educated, very wealthy and greatly respected member of the religious establishment. But he didn’t allow Nicodemus’ impressive resume to distract him from who he was or why he was here. He remained focused.

--And this morning, we’re going to watch his encounter with a woman at the opposite end of the social spectrum—a completely disrespected woman with a most embarrassing resume. And once again, he doesn’t allow her lack of social standing to distract him from who he was and why he was here. He remained completely focus.

The story is found in John 4 and as the story begins we see Jesus taking a rest break in Samaria as he travels from Judea to Galilee. Beginning in verse 5 we read:

5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Let’s stop there for a moment and try to picture the scene. In the midst of his travels, Jesus stops to refresh himself around noon…that’s, “the sixth hour”…at a well with tremendous historic significance to the Jews. Genesis records that, centuries earlier Jacob dug this well and on his deathbed gave it to his son Joseph.

Also noteworthy is the fact that this well is in Samaria. Though the Samaritans and the Jews shared common bloodlines, they also nurtured a centuries’ old animosity toward one another. Because the Samaritans had intermarried with foreigners, the Jews considered them to be half-breeds and referred to them as dogs. So, the point is that by venturing into Samaria Jesus is in hostile territory.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

The Samaritan woman is absolutely astonished when Jesus speaks to her because, as she says, Jews and Samaritans don’t associate with one another. Left unspoken is the fact that men and women, in this society, also did not associate with one another in public places like this. But, because he never lost sight of who he was and why he was here he moved right past these social barriers to seize an opportunity to talk to this woman about spiritual things.

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

In other words, “If you knew who you’re talking to right now…and knew the incredible gift that God so longs to give you through me…you’d be drinking living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Clearly, there’s no connection here, yet. Jesus is talking on a spiritual plane about “living water” but the woman is trapped in her thoughts at the physical level and can’t get beyond well water.

So, Jesus presses on.

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus says, “Let me tell you something else. Not only can I give you a drink of water even though I don’t have a bucket…I can give you a drink of water that is so satisfying you’ll never be thirsty again. The water I give will become in you an internal, free flowing spring of water bubbling up to eternal life.”

Throughout the Scriptures water is used as a vivid image with a variety of meanings, but always connected to life. Water is a source of life. Jesus frequently used the imagery of water in this way, as in John 7:37-38 where he says, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

That’s the offer and invitation that Jesus is bringing to the Samaritan woman here. And it’s the same offer and invitation that he’s bringing to each one of us, today,

--Stop carrying around that awful load of guilt that you live with. Come and taste the water of forgiveness.
--You don’t have to live with discouragement and worry. Come and taste the water of hope and grace.
--You don’t have to be enslaved to sin and destructive behaviors and attitudes. I’ve come to set you free from all of that. Come and taste the water of God’s Spirit turned loose in you to transform your life. Now and forever.

It’s an incredible offer, but the Samaritan woman was still struggling to understand what Jesus was talking about. Even so, she was intrigued enough to ask him for some of that water and Jesus immediately drove right to the heart of the most broken, vulnerable area of her life.

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Why would Jesus do such a thing? Here is a woman who has been completed degraded. Passed from man to man to use and discard at will. Now she’s living sinfully with a man who’s not even bothered to marry her. Here’s a woman who’s sense of shame is so profound that she’s out here gathering water by herself in the middle of the day rather than joining the other women of the town for the customary social time around the well in the late afternoon. Why? Because she’s so tired of the sideways glances, the smirks and snide remarks—“harlot,” “adulteress,” “whore.”

She carries the awful burden of her shame everywhere she goes. It never leaves her. Why, then, would Jesus expose the great wound in her life like this? Because he never lost sight of who he was and why he was here. He’s the Son of God and He’s here to give eternal life to everyone who believes in him. Even this poor, sinful, shame-filled, degraded woman. But he can’t do it until she confronts the reality of her sin. Sin has to be dealt with.
And the same is true of us. Jesus longs to give us the gift of eternal life. But he can’t do it, until we confront the reality of our sin.

And it’s clear, here, that his confrontational strategy has been successful, because she immediately changes the subject of the conversation. Isn’t that the universal response of the guilty? Let’s just change the subject. So, Jesus exposes her sin and she says, “So, let’s talk about worship.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

It’s interesting that Jesus doesn’t try to steer the conversation back to the woman’s sinfulness. Instead, He answers the question she’s raised about worship. Why? Because he realizes that he can use her question to accomplish the purpose for which God has sent him, namely, to lead her to salvation.

So the woman asks, “Where is the right place to worship God?” And Jesus says, “Where you worship is of no interest to God. What matters to God is how you worship and whom you worship.”

That phrase, “worship in spirit and truth,” relates to the “how” and “whom” of worship.

True worship is a spiritual experience. It’s not about external things like where to worship and what style of music you like. Those are external concerns. True worship…real worship…is an experience of the heart. It’s our spirit fueled and enlivened by the Holy Spirit drawing out our love for and lifting our praise to God. That’s worship “in spirit.”

True worship is also rooted “in truth,” that is, it must be based on an accurate view of God and that means that your knowledge of God must be based on what the Bible tells us about God.

When you combine a heart enlivened by the Holy Spirit with a mind grounded in God’s word the result is true worship. And God, Jesus says here, is seeking true worshipers.

In the verses that follow the woman runs back into town and begins telling everyone who will listen that she has met the Messiah, Christ. She has had a life-changing encounter with the Savior.

Meanwhile, the disciples return to the well with food and try to get Jesus to eat something. And Jesus’ response to the disciples gives us an incredible glimpse into his heart; a glimpse into the heart of God; and a glimpse of the heart he wants to grow in us. In verse 34 he says,

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

In other words, “I feed on doing the will and work of God. It’s who I am. It’s why I’m here. And the Father is seeking those who will worship him with their hearts and minds fully engaged. And today the heart of a whore has been turned into the heart of a worshiper. Thank you, but I don’t need your food. I’m full already.”

I said last week, that you’ll never understand the heart of God until you understand that He loves you. With all of His heart, He loves you. And it doesn’t matter what you’ve done or how guilty and shameful you may feel. God still loves you. And he’s still seeking you.

Jim Cymbala, pastor of The Brooklyn Tabernacle, tells of a Sunday morning when a filthy, homeless man walked down the aisle during their time of invitation. This was not an unusual occurrence in their church given its location, but what was unusual was the overwhelming stench emanating from the man’s clothing. He reeked of alcohol, sweat, urine and garbage. The smell was so overwhelming that Pastor Cymbala, who encountered street people regularly, said it literally took his breath away.

Hoping to end the encounter as quickly as possible, the Pastor reached for his money clip and the man said, “No, you don’t understand. I don’t want your money. I want…Jesus.”

The pastor said he closed his eyes and prayed, “God forgive me.” And in that instant he sensed the Lord say to him, “Jim, if you have any value to me, if you have any purpose in my work—it has to do with this odor. This is the smell of the world I died for.”

I don’t know where you are spiritually, but I know this: God’s love moved Him to seek a Samaritan whore and a foul-smelling alcoholic on the streets of Brooklyn. And this morning, in love, He’s seeking you.

He wants to free you from whatever it might be that is keeping you from experiencing the fullness of life that Jesus came to give you. He wants to free you from guilt, from shame, from addictions and destructive attitudes and behaviors. He wants to pour his life into yours.