Sometimes I read John’s Gospel, and it’s my favorite Gospel. Then I read Matthew, and it’s my favorite. And so I vacillate—whichever one I’m reading, I think that’s my favorite. But as you well know, all four of these Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John] paint a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ that always draws me closer—makes us love Him more, makes us respect Him more…and makes us realize what a marvelous thing it is that God sent His Son to this earth to “seek and to save that which was lost.” [Luke 19:10]
That’s really our lesson this morning. Jesus came to SEEK and to save that which was lost. The whole mission of Christianity is seeking the lost. And even in the Old Testament, God was seeking through His people. And that’s a great thought, that the Creator of the universe, God, Who is from “everlasting to everlasting,”[Psalm 90:2; Psalm 103:17; Psalm 106:48] is interested in you…and you…and me!! He wants us to live with Him forever—in perfect peace, love, beauty, and harmony!! All the things that we’re seeking in this life are laid up for us in heaven, [Matthew 6:20]. And in the Christian life here on earth, we have just a foretaste of what it will be like in heaven. Isn’t that marvelous?
And I am confident that the idea is that God wants to make us long for heaven. And if we love Him like we should, we want to be with Him. I don’t even have to tell you that you desire to be with those whom you love. That is the truth throughout the world. And when you think about what God has done through Jesus, you want to be with Jesus. And when the first one who died for the cause of Christ, Stephen—stoned to death in Jerusalem—lifted up his eyes while they were gnashing on him with their teeth, he uttered these marvelous words, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God,” [Acts 7:55].
Other passages tell us that when Jesus went back to heaven He was seated at the right hand of God, [Mark 16:19; Luke 22:69; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 10:12; Hebrews 12:2]. I don’t know if I’m making too much out of that or not. But I wonder if Jesus stood up for the person, Stephen, who died. Now, we may not die as a martyr, but we can die as one in the faith! And when we see our Lord, we hope that He will say, “…Well done, thou good and faithful servant: …enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” [Matthew 25:21; Matthew 25:23].
So He came to seek and to save the lost. And His desire has not changed one iota. And all of us are helpers with Him, [1 Corinthians 3:9]. We, too, must have a mission of seeking to bring as many people, whom we love, to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so that they may live eternally in the presence of God. And incidentally, “whom we love” ought to be everybody.
Well, as I read John’s Gospel this past week, I read a passage that’s so familiar to me, and to you, and yet it holds so many teachings and wonderful things for us to contemplate that I want to speak on it again this morning. I’m in the 4th chapter of John’s Gospel. And I’ll say, by way of introduction, that Judea was the province to the south, and Galilee was the province to the north. And the pure-bred Jews lived in these two places. But when the Babylonian captivity came, the Jews that were left—not led off into bondage—moved to the center part of the Bible lands, and that center part was called Samaria. And they intermarried with some of the Edomites, and they became a mixed group of people. When those Jews that finally came back from Babylon came to Jerusalem and rebuilt the city—and some came to Galilee—they had nothing to do with these “half-breed” Jews. So the half-breed Jews built a temple at the Hill of Samaria, and they worshipped there because they weren’t welcome in Jerusalem when Passover, Pentecost, Day of Atonement and all those feast days were to be celebrated. So there was animosity between these two people.
Not so with our Lord! He’s going to walk through Samaria as He is going down to Galilee. And that’s where we find Him in the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John. [John 4, beginning with verse 4: ] “Now He had to go through Samaria. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar…,” Incidentally, it’s still there—the ruins are there. And incidentally, Jacob’s well, we think, is still there. It’s been there as long as we’ve got any recorded history. And it still produces water. And you can let the bucket down into the well, and it goes 70 feet before it strikes that cool, clear, rich, pure water. And then you pull it up, and everybody who’s a witness wants to drink from it. And I’ve drunk from it a number of times. And I think it’s the right place. “…near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 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…” That’s 12:00, high noon.
[John 4:7] “When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give Me a drink?’ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
[John 4:9] “The Samaritan woman said to Him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink…?’” Now, here’s a parenthetical statement—a statement that has been added to make things clearer, or to explain something more. “(For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
[John 4:10] “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.’
[John 4:11] “‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 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?’
[John 4:13] “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.’
[John 4:15] “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.’
[John 4:16] “He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’
[John7:17] “‘I have no husband,’ she replied.
“Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.’
[John 4:19] “‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’
[John 4:21] “Jesus declared, ‘Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.’
[John 4:25] “The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.’
[John 4:26] “Then Jesus declared, ‘I who speak to you am He.’
[John 4:27] “Just then His disciples returned and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. But no one asked, ‘What do You want?’ or ‘Why are You talking with her?’
[John 4:28] “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ They came out of the town and made their way toward Him.
[John 4:31] “Meanwhile His disciples urged Him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’
[John 4:32] “But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing about.’
[John 4:33] “Then His disciples said to each other, ‘Could someone have brought Him food?’
[John 4:34] “‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the Will of Him Who sent Me and to finish His work. Do you not say, “Four months more and then the harvest?” I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying “One sows and another reaps” is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.’
[John 4:39] “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers.
[John 4:42] “They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’”
Isn’t that beautiful? Especially when we realize that the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. Especially when we realize that this woman was considered by anybody to be a sinful woman. Especially when we realize that the Jews had no dealing with them, and a man would not address a woman in public! And this explains why the woman had a head covering and a veil. A married woman always had a veil. And she never took it off in public. Her immediate family were the only ones who ever saw her face. It was a custom, but it was also respect for a married woman. So our Lord broke some conventionality here. But He was interested in a sinful woman.
You know, I think there are a number of things that we can draw from this passage. The first thing I see is every soul is precious. Hey, everybody that’s reached the age of accountability is a sinner. And some people are worse sinners than others. But in God’s eyes, and in Jesus’ eyes, and in the Words of this marvelous Book—the Bible, God is interested in sinners and wants to save them. Now, is that Good News, or not? That IS Good News! And that is what Jesus came to bring. He came to save us all! And He’s left a Word here—the Bible—that will save us all. And the church of Christ is His divine institution, and our mission is to tell the Good News to as many people as we possibly can! And so we see our Lord doing that.
He had to go through Samaria. Ah, He really didn’t have to, but I think it means “had to go through Samaria” because our Lord was interested even in the Samaritans.
It said He was tired and He sat down on the curbing of the well. Incidentally, there’s still stone curbing around that old well. Every archeologist that I know of says that that’s Jacob’s well. You can find it mentioned in ancient records. And, dear friends, it’s in exactly the right place that it ought to be. And it’s deep, and it’s cut through stone. So all these years, it’s been producing water. And you still see shepherds in the fields.
He sat down on the well because He was tired. You know that our Lord put on flesh and blood to be just like us? He got tired, He got disappointed, He got hurt, He got hungry.
He made contact with the Samaritan woman in an ordinary way. He didn’t perform any miracles here. She came up to draw water, and she came at high noon. We read from other passages that the women of a village would come out in the cool of the evening, [Genesis 24:11]. Late in the evening, they would come to draw water. And they would talk—they’d visit together and find the news of different families. She was not welcome in that group. We know that for a fact. She was probably the most sinful woman in the city. So, she comes out at noon, and nobody’s there—not at high noon! And here sits a Jew on the well.
He said, “Will you give Me a drink?” He’s asking a favor of her! She’s greatly surprised at that. But He opens up the conversation that way. And so she says, and this is an extraordinary thing, “How is it that You being a JEW, and I’m a Samaritan, that You will ask of me a drink?” She couldn’t believe it! It wasn’t done! But where souls are concerned, our Lord breaks all conventionality. He crosses the barriers. He’s interested even in a sinful Samaritan woman! And I might add that most of the Jews considered the Samaritans lower even than the heathens—those that were Gentiles. But not our Lord! There’s no one on this earth that He’s not interested in. Now, think of that. We’ve got to share this interest in seeking and saving that which was lost. Jesus crossed lines, He broke barriers, and then He began. “If you knew the gift of God…”
How many in this world know the gift of God? We just remembered the gift of God by our remembrance of the sacrificial death of Jesus in the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. I think “grace” is one of the most beautiful words in all of the world, and it’s a Bible word. And our New Testament is filled with “grace”—186 times. It means “unmerited favor.” Unmerited favor means that God did for us what we didn’t deserve!
What did that woman deserve? Our Lord didn’t look at what she deserved. He wanted her saved. Boy, what a Father we have, and what a Savior we have! Do we really appreciate this? Do we think about how concerned for us God is? He is concerned for every one of us individually! His Son died for us as though each of us was the only one on earth! His love was extended to us while we were yet sinners, [Romans 5:8]. His grace was given to us to provide what we didn’t deserve!
I tell you, we have a wonderful religion, friends. And here it is in this story, and it’s such a beautiful portrayal of what God is like, and of what Jesus is like.
He was, as He started talking to her, creating a spiritual thirst in her. “If you knew the gift of God…” What IS the “gift of God”? He’s going to tell her. The gift of God was sitting right there on the curb in front of her. And so as He created a spiritual thirst in her, her question is, “Where can I get this gift of God? Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who built this well, and it’s still here providing water?”
And then He says, “Whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst.” He now crosses a barrier and puts it in spiritual language. She doesn’t understand it, but she wants it, and that’s what Jesus wants. And so He has bridged a gap, and He begins the process to show her that she is the sinner, and He has the cure—in fact, He IS the cure! And so, He makes her focus on her life.
He says, “Go get your husband.” “Come back here with your husband.” She said, “I have no husband.” He didn’t leave it there. That would have meant that she wasn’t married. He said, “You have spoken rightly, but you’ve had five husbands, and the one you have now, you’re not married to.” See how modern the Bible is, dear friends? That sounds like our day and age. It really does.
So, she changed the subject. And the subject is an argument that the Samaritans have had with the Jews for a long time. She said, “You claim we ought to worship in Jerusalem where the Temple is. Our fathers say we ought to worship in this mountain (Mount Gerizim)…” Do you know that there are ruins of the ancient Temple on the top of Mount Gerizim today? Archeologists have found it. And we also know exactly where the Temple was in Jerusalem in the time of our Lord and all the apostles and the early church. And we know when it was destroyed—in AD 70. But these things are real, dear friends. This is not myth and fable!
So, she changes the subject, and she says, “You Jews think you’re the only ones, that Jerusalem is the place.” Our Lord said, “No, the time is coming that neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall we worship the Father. But they that worship Him shall worship Him in spirit and in Truth.” And dear friends, that’s a great passage! Here’s the Truth that tells us how to worship! But you and I provide the spiritual side of it. We believe it, we love it, we trust it, we obey it!! Our spirit is in tune with the spirit of God!! Our spirit is in tune with Jesus as we partake of the Lord’s Supper. It is a COMMUNION—that which is common to BOTH! He says, “I will not take this until I take it with you in My Father’s kingdom,” [Matthew 26:29]. And every Lord’s day that you’re here, HE’S HERE. He’s with us now. He knows the heart of every one of us. And just like He could look into the life of that woman and know… He didn’t do it to damage her. He did it to open up, to reveal to her that “I AM the Son of God. I AM the Savior. This IS the gift of God. This IS what you are looking for!” And so, He gently led her. And sometimes the Truth is a bit painful, especially when our sins are uncovered. But remember, when they are uncovered, we can repent of them, and believe in our Lord, and do what He says, and our sins are taken away! THERE is the gift of God!
He says, “Samaritans worship what you don’t know, but Jews worship what they do know.” And she said, “I know that the Messiah is coming! And when He comes, He will tell us all things.” And Jesus, now, comes to the “punch line”. This is what He has been leading up to. He said, “I that speak unto you am HE.” You’re looking the Messiah in the face!
You know, she forgot her water jug? She ran back into the town. She was so excited! Jesus never got a drink from her. He didn’t even want any food, because He, too, was excited. Have we ever been so excited over spiritual things that we forget food and drink? What was the most important thing at that hour? To Jesus, it was that woman’s soul. And He knew what she had the possibility of doing. She became not only an instant believer in Him, but she became a SOUL WINNER. She went back in into the town, and she said, “Come see a man who told me ALL that I ever did!!” And when we read the question that she asked in the original Greek language, it is a question that demands a positive answer. “Is not this the Son of God? YES IT IS!” That’s the way her question is really phrased in the original language.
So, many Samaritans believed on Him because of the testimony of the most sinful woman, probably, in their town. Can a sinner preach? If we tell the Truth, anybody can! It’s the TRUTH that saves us, not the one who delivers it. And look what we have in this story. She became an instant soul winner. Many Samaritans came. And John describes it. “And Jesus said, ‘Look! The fields are white already…’” They are glowing unto harvest. And as He looked over those fields, here came the people out of Sychar! And His heart was rejoicing because they’re all sinners, and they’re coming to Him.
Do you know that the Scriptures say that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents of the error of his ways, than over 99 righteous souls that need no repentance? [Luke 15:1-7]. Friends, do we rejoice when someone is baptized into Christ? I think we do. But don’t we need to be reminded that all of heaven is rejoicing? That God is touched? That Jesus is happy? That Their Will is being DONE? And that THIS is the whole motivation of all of heaven? ANGELS want us to be saved! The Father certainly does! THIS is His whole plan! He wanted us back with Him from the very beginning. He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening in the Garden! And they obeyed another master!! And therein is a very simple way that shows us how we part from God. And that master that they obeyed is still in the world, and he’s the deceiver of all men! And he preaches and teaches half-truths, and he gets a lot of people! He’s always had the majority. But heaven has always had the quality!! And that will always be true. And most of the time when you listen to the world, it will be the wrong direction—wrong teaching. Heaven has a simple message, and the message is that Jesus can save sinful men. We sing that song.
So, many of the Samaritans believed on Him because of her testimony. So, then, they conclude, after they hear Him, “We now believe because of HIS testimony.” And they now could say, “This IS the SAVIOR of the world!” Isn’t that great?! I don’t know what happened to these people—these Samaritans—when the church was started later on the Day of Pentecost. I’m confident that they also were among those who were added to the church as they “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine delivered to them,” [Romans 6:17]. [Note: After the church of Christ was established, Acts 8:5 says, “Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.”] So, we come to the same conclusion. We know that this Man is INDEED the SAVIOR of all of the human race.
And when Jesus saw the people of Sychar coming, He said to His followers, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” A world filled with sinners! Everyone needs Jesus and the “water of eternal life,” [John 4:14].
And we need to say the same thing she said: “Come, see a man who told all I ever did. Can this be the Son of God?” [a paraphrase of part of John 4: 28]. He is indeed. And, dear friends, you and I need to share this. Jesus needs help in saving the lost. Let’s do all we possibly can.
Numbers do not count in the Lord’s kingdom. But faith does…love does…hope does. And we may be small in number compared to some congregations throughout the brotherhood, but many of them have lost their hold of the Truth. As long as we preach Jesus, and Him crucified, as long as all of us are interested in touching the lives whom we love and those who are our neighbors, hey!, we’re a strong force for our Lord! And He’s pleased with us, and He will bless us in our efforts!
It’s a good audience this morning. There may be someone here that wants to obey the Gospel of Jesus. It’s very simple. You believe that He’s the Son of God, and that’s the whole story of this book—the Bible. Jesus is the Son of God, and He can save the world. And when you BELIEVE that, you’ll make a change, and that’s what the word REPENT means…a change of MIND that will result in a change of LIFE. You’re going in the wrong direction, and then you get on track, and you’re headed toward God for eternity.
And you’re not ashamed to say to the world, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the SON of the LIVING GOD! That’s the CONFESSION that we make.
And the culmination of this faith process is to be buried with Him in the waters of BAPTISM, putting to death the old person, being united with Him in a spiritual way in a likeness of His death, washed in His blood! If you’re dead, you’re buried with Him, and you’re raised together with Christ to in newness of life. And that’s CONVERSION. Baptism is the final step. And there may be some in this good audience that need to be baptized. We want to help you. If you need the prayers of the church, we want to join you in doing that.