The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E27 - The Woman at the Well

Episode Date: May 12, 2020

Hey, church family, it is time for Devo. If you got your Bible, John Chapter 4. John Chapter 4 records the event where Jesus talks to the woman at the well in Samaria. Part of the reason I want to go over this is because this last week in church that you tuned into, I mean, it's a tough teaching. We were talking about lust and marriage and divorce. And I know, I mean, I only got like an hour to talk there, okay? And if you've walked through pain, even especially sexual sex.

on your, like where you were the center, or whether you were sinned against, whatever it is, man. The few people that we have in our services, we've got a few staff people with camera and the bands and all that. Let me just tell you, there were a lot of tears. There's a lot of pain. And the reason I wanted to look at John chapter 4 is because also there's a lot of healing. And the woman that Jesus encounters here,

she had been affected by lust and divorce and sin. And so let's dive in. It says, 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 he departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. By the way, most Jews would loop around Samaria, honestly just because they were racist and it to walk through there. But Jesus had to pass. And I think he had to pass because the Spirit of God told him to do it. And Jesus always did what his father told him to do. So he came to the town of

Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there and so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, noticed the humanity of Jesus that he was fully God. He could call down a legion of angels in a second that he could tell him. tell dead people not to be dead anymore, that he could walk on water, that he could perceive your thoughts as you sat at the table and thought them, and he would answer your thoughts, not just your questions. Fully God and fully man. He got tired, and he got thirsty. So he goes to Jacob's well, and he was sitting beside the well, and it was about the sixth hour. That means 12 o'clock. They would start counting when the sun came up. So let's say the sun came up at 6 a.m., it'd be about noon.

Now, a woman from Samaria came to draw water. Stop. It's a weird time to come to the whale. You didn't come to the well at 12. You came to the well at 6 or 7 when it was cool. And since, that's when all the other women would be there to draw water for the day. This woman, who was clothed in shame, she lives in a little town.

Everybody knows not only her past, but also knows her current situation, I think she's trying to avoid the crowd and go get water by herself because she has isolated herself because of shame. And Jesus just happens to be sitting, and when I say just happens to be, I mean, he sovereignly planned to be there in that exact moment to meet this woman in her shame.

Sin can call shame, but the cross takes it away. Jesus will meet us right where we are. And Jesus said to her, Notice Jesus instigates this conversation. Give me a drink. I think it was nicer than the way it seems here. He didn't say, like, give me a drink. I think it was like, if you don't mind, give me a drink.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. And the Samaritan woman said to him, notice she startled that he would even be talking to her. How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink for me, a woman, that's one of Samaria. For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. It was against Jewish law, really, for a man to talk to a known.

woman, especially a married woman, and particularly Jewish people did not deal with Samaritans, as it says right here. It was rooted, it was just rooted in racism. It was also rooted in the Samaritans had intermarried. They were originally Jewish people, and during the exile, there were some Jewish people left back in the promised land, and they intermarried. And when they intermarried, not only was it like an ethnic racial thing, but they also adopted the gods at the people that they married with. So it was also a religious problem there. And 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. And the woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do I 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 is offering her the beginning of a conversation that could lead her to salvation, and it just goes right over her head. I mean, Jesus is saying, hey, listen, you come here to try to quench a thirst, but I am the only one that can quench a thirst forever and ever and ever. And she hears that invitation, and all she looks at, she's like, you don't even have a cup or a bucket. How are you going to give me what I want? Are you greater than Jacob who gave us this well. And then 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. We talk about this over and over and over. You see, we're going to find out in just a second that this woman is on her fifth marriage, or she's had five husbands,

and the one she's with now is not even her husband. In other words, what Jesus is saying to her is, this isn't just a water thirst thing. You see, in this world, you have been going back and back and back to a well as a source of satisfaction and the well that you have been going to in this world, and I'm not talking about water,

I'm talking about men in the city, and they have never been able to fully and finally satisfy, but a relationship with me, a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, that is the only thing that will continuously satisfy over and over and over. So one of the questions, church, is this, what's the well you keep going back to? Is it success? Is it stuff? Is it status? Is it sex?

Is it what people think about you? Is it a relationship? Is it pornography? there's something that you go to to try to quench your thirst. And the crazy thing about trying to quench your thirst is it is only temporary and requires you to go back over and over and over and over. And Jesus says, I can quench that thirst forever because what you're actually looking for can only be satisfied by your sovereign savior and not the circumstantial stuff of this world.

And 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. Now, let me give you evangelism 101, okay? Evangelism 101 is when you talk to somebody and they don't know Jesus and you start out a conversation about whatever it is, all right, the weather or your family or what did you do this weekend or you're on a plane, remember those, and where are you going?

Me too, you know, that stuff. And then somehow, by God's grace, you're able to take that conversation and then start pointing it to Jesus. Hey, this world didn't satisfy, and guess what? I have the secret of satisfaction. You want to know what it is? And this woman is like, yes, will you give me this living water?

And then what Jesus does next, if you didn't read the rest of the Bible, you would think what Jesus does next is say this. Okay, just pray. Right now, you can surrender your life to me. Admit you're a sinner, believe, in a few chapters when I die on the cross,

it counted for you, and confess me as Lord, and you will be satisfied forever. However, Jesus doesn't do that. Instead, Jesus says to her, go, call your husband and come here. And the woman answered him, I have no husband. And 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. You get what's going on here? That Jesus could have avoided the sticky part of her life, the embarrassing part of her life, the shameful part of her life, and he just could have talked about eternal life and spiritual matters, but instead, right in the moment where he could seal the deal and have her confess him as Lord, instead, he says, no, no, no, no, I want all of you.

I want all of you. That part that you were most ashamed of, I want you to go and get it and bring it to me. That thing that is the source of your shame that has led you to avoid the well at 6 a.m., and come here at 12, go get your husband and bring it to me. Now let me ask you, what is that in your life?

For her, it was sexual sin. Maybe it is. Maybe it's your divorce. Maybe it's your affair. Maybe it's your pornography issue. Maybe it's your lust issue. Maybe it's your self-medication with alcohol, with drugs, with prescriptions that aren't yours.

Maybe it's something seemingly benign, like some romance novel, but every single day you neglect. your family to go dive into this fantasy land because it just feels better in your mind. What is that thing that you have hidden away in the secret places because you are ashamed of it? Jesus says about that very thing, bring that thing to me. Go and get your husband and bring him to me. and when she says, I don't have a husband.

He's like, I know. I know, much like this well, where you have to come back day after day after day to try to quench your thirst. You have gone from man to man to man to man to try to quench your thirst, and it's not working, is it? So, ma'am, why don't you go

and bring that thing to me? And then she answers, well, before I dive in, have you ever brought that to Jesus? Have you ever brought your, deepest, darkest secrets because they're not secret to him. And part of what it means to know him is to be known by him, and he already knows.

He knows what's in your thoughts. He knows what's on your laptop. He knows what's on your phone. He knows who you are. He knows everything that you have been doing. And he invites all of you to him for him to cleanse you of all the things that have brought you so much shame. Please, please, please.

The fake you is doing just fine. but a real Jesus died on the real cross, and he really wants to transform the real you. And so the woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Our father's worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

And 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 don't know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews.

but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is Spirit. And those who worship him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called the Christ. And when he comes, he will tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am He. Here's what she did. This is classic. church people move right here. The moment Jesus starts to like noodle around in her life, like the secret places of the heart,

the moment that Jesus begins to get down into the deep, dark crevices of your life where the idols live and begin to dislodge the idols, the moment that begins to happen, she tries to throw Jesus a theological curveball about what mountain we're supposed to worship home. And Jesus isn't playing that. Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, this is about spirit.

that's digging around in your life and truth. So let's be honest. And then he says, I am that Messiah. I am the one who has come to change your life. She's going to run into town. She's going to be so excited to tell everybody to come meet Jesus, who knew everything about her, met her exactly where she was, did not love some future version of her,

but offered the living water to her in that very moment. The same offer applies to you. So worship him in spirit, wherever the spirit is digging around, particularly in regards to the sermon that you heard from this weekend about marriage and divorce and lust and oaths. And bring your truth, bring all of those things to him. He knows. He knows. In fact, he knows so intimately that he became those sins that you want to hide on the cross so that we could become his righteous life through the blood of Jesus. Let's pray. our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you, and I praise you that we never, ever have to fake it. We just don't. And Lord, there's something about church that leads us to try to put on this veneer, to put on this facade. And Jesus, I thank you that you were the kind of

savior that meets us where we are, that even meets us in our sin and shame, that goes out of your way to meet us where we are, and then digs into those deep, dark places that we think we hide, and yet Jesus, the light of the world, you shine your light in those dark places. So Lord, I pray that we would be honest, we would confess, we would repent, knowing that we run to the loving arms of a heavenly Father.

We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.