Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Dial In - John 4:1-26 (Ep. 09)

Episode Date: April 9, 2020

Dial In is a devotional series with the intention of helping followers of Christ understand God’s word and love Him more. Jonny seeks to communicate the profound depth of scripture in a digestible and condensed format each weekday. The goal of the podcast is that our “minds would be renewed” as we behold who God is in His word. In this series, Jonny is walking sequentially through the Gospel of John.In this episode, Jonny covers John 4:1-26 and highlights 3 essential truths:Jesus is EvangelicalJesus confronts sinJesus offers HimselfWatch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. I've said it before, but John the Gospel writer has a grand purpose for why he is writing his gospel. And every event that he includes and every story he tells is culminating into providing proof for that grand purpose that he states in chapter 20 verse 31, which says, These things I write to you so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and in believing you may have life in his name. We're going to see that play out in this chapter today as Jesus displays his humanity, his deity, and his omniscience

with a woman at a well in John chapter 4, verses 1 through 26. Let's dial in. John chapter 4, verses 1 through 26. 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 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. A woman from Samaria came to draw water, and 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 this 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 give him will never thirst 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 that you have now 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 worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. What you have said is true. we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here, when the 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. Okay, so Jesus leaves Judea, which is in the south, and he heads to Galilee, which is in

the north. And he travels through the fastest route, which is to go right through Samaria. This seems normal, but it's not. Jews never ever did this, and I'll tell you why. First of all, we need to remember that the Bible is about real people and real places. Typically, the Jews would take the long route to go north to Galilee because they wanted to avoid the Samaritans at all costs, and they would add on a considerable distance just to avoid them. The example that I will provide is hypothetically, if you're driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco,

the fastest way to get there is 382 miles on the 5 north. But hypothetically, you hate Bakersfield so much, and you will do anything to avoid interacting with Bakersfieldians. So what you do is you take the long route. Don't take the 5. You go all the way around Yosemite up until you hit Reno. And once you hit Reno, you go southwest from there, all to avoid the people of Bakersfield. I love you, Bakersfield. Here's in short why Jews hated Samaritans. In 1 Kings chapter 12, King Solomon, rich guy, bunch of wives, he dies and the kingdom of Israel is divided.

The 10 tribes in the north consisted of the kingdom of Israel and the two tribes in the south consisted of the kingdom of Judah. Later on, both of these kingdoms were exiled. First the northern kingdom, then the southern kingdom. But when the northern kingdom returned from exile, they returned with pagan wives. They had intermarried with other nations. This was the ultimate symbol of compromise for a Jew. They had forsaken their Judaism and committed the most heinous crime that a Jew could commit. They not only married into these pagan nations that served pagan idols, And it says in verse 4 that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. He wanted to. I think it is because he had a divinely scheduled appointment with the outcast of outcasts,

not only a Samaritan, but a sexually immoral woman. And although others, including John the Baptist, the greatest man who had ever been born a woman, had already testified regarding the deity of Jesus Christ at this point in John's gospel, here with a sexually immoral Samaritan, Jesus will for the first time proclaim his identity to someone else. There's so many things that we could talk about when it comes to this passage, but we'll focus on three. Number one, Jesus is evangelistic. He doesn't offer himself to the most moral or the most religious or even the ones that you would expect. Jesus is different than we expect. He's having a conversation here with the lowest of low, a sexually immoral Samaritan woman. And he initiates this conversation with her established upon a common need. He's thirsty.

It's a display of his humanity. And he's asking this woman for a drink who's sitting there at a well alone in the heat of the day. This alone provides a lot of description towards her social standing in the community. You see, normally women would go together either in the morning or in the evening, and they would go together in large groups, but she's alone in the heat of the day. Other people seemingly don't even want to associate with her. And Jesus says, give me a drink. And she responds and says, how is it that you, a Jewish man, are asking me for a drink? I'm a Samaritan woman. And Jesus says, if you knew who it was that was asking you for a drink, you would in return ask him for living water so that you would never thirst again. And she says, are you better than Jacob? Essentially,

this well is from Jacob, a Hebrew patriarch. And Jesus responds and says, I'm with you. Jacob was an awesome guy. He's great. This well has been serving people for over 2,000 years, and it continues to provide nourishment and refreshment year after year after year. But one thing I want you to realize, woman, is what he's telling her, is that like you came here yesterday,

you will have to come again tomorrow to get water. And the next day and the next day and the next day, your life is a perpetual cycle of need. But I will give you water that will last forever and that will well up and spring forth unto eternal life. Now, Jesus knows that her life was completely bankrupt. She has been married five times and every single marriage has ended the exact same way. She's 0 for 5, and now she is living with someone that is not her husband.

She is desperately trying to find happiness and satisfaction. This woman is alone at the well and seemingly lonely in life. She's empty and is just craving some form of fulfillment in her soul. But because there's no partiality with God, God extends this offer of living water to her because it is for all who thirst. And she responds and says, sir, give me this water. But Jesus isn't quite finished with her yet because in order for her to actually thirst for the well of life, she needs to have an understanding of her sin. I like what Thomas Aquinas says. He says, we see people all around us desperately seeking peace and relief from guilt or to fill the emptiness of their souls and lives. And we look at them and see from our perspective and know that the only thing that can fulfill

that seeking is Christ and assume that they must be seeking for God. He continues and says, No, people desperately search for the things that only God can give them while at the same time they flee from him. That is this woman. She is desperately seeking for the things that only God can give her all the while running from him. And so Jesus here continues to confront her in her sin. And that's her second point. Jesus confronts sin. In verse 16, he says,

go get your husband. And she responds and says, I don't have a husband. And Jesus says, you're right. You don't have a husband. You have had five. They've all failed. And the guy you're living with now is not your husband. She responds and says, I see that you are a prophet. Assuredly, the woman would already have been aware of the guilt and the shame in her life. But here, any remnant immorality that she may have attempted to posture before this man at the well had quickly withered away. Jesus exposes her sin. Her conscience is pricked.

Her soul is pierced. But you know what I love about this? Is that Jesus communicates this sin to her, I think so that she would understand that God is not surprised nor intimidated by her sin. He already knows all of her sin prior to this conversation. And in spite of all that he knows, he is still the one that initiates and seeks and pursues this conversation with her and extends this offer of living water. Jesus is not alarmed by her sin. All of our sin in Hebrews 4 is already uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him who sees everything. And once this woman realizes that

the man sitting before her already knows all of her guilt and all of her shame and all of her past and still offers her this living water, she can now gladly surrender to this offer that he extends. Number three, Jesus offers himself. To a woman that was full of shame, Jesus offers living water because he himself would bear her shame on the cross. Jesus extends mercy without regard to morality. She says, sir, we know that the Messiah is coming, the one that has been prophesied. And Jesus responds and says, I who speak to you am he. Jesus pronounces that he is the only one who can satisfy her craving soul and remedy her sinful heart. Remember, water in the Old Testament was the symbol for purification, but on a human level, it also illustrates what our hearts

crave and need. Jesus is the solution for both. He alone provides purification from our sin, and he alone provides the satisfaction that our hearts are craving for. Jeremiah 2.13 talks about how disobedient Israelites foolishly forsook the Lord, the fountain of living waters to hew for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water, a cheap substitute. But Jesus alone, Psalm 36 verse 9, God is the fountain of life. And Jesus extends this offer to her. It is the gift of God and he extends that to all who believe.

In opposition to all religion that says do this, perform this, wear this, eat this, and go here and God will give you this. The gospel says come as you are to the foot of the cross and receive the living water that only Jesus can offer. It is a gift that she could never purchase and never earn and that is available to, in verse 14, anyone who thirsts for salvation. And Jesus extends this offer of living water to a broken soul. It reminds me of Revelation 22, 17, the passage that says, the spirit and the bride say, come and let the one who hears say, come and let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost come. And Jesus extends that living water to a broken woman at a well.

And we see her response. She responds with joy and goes and tells everyone what God had done in her life. It's an amazing story. Inevitably, there will be someone listening to this that has not tasted the sweetness of Christ himself, whose souls are so thirsty and so empty. And what we see this morning is the only one that can fill that void in our soul is Christ himself, who offers us living water. I pray that you hear the words of Christ to this woman, and you will say to him, give me a drink, and he will. So what

do we cover today? Number one, Jesus is evangelistic. Number two, Jesus confronts sin. And number three, in spite of everything that he knows about us, Jesus offers himself. What an amazing story and what an amazing God. Stay dialed in.