TEXT: JOHN 4:1-42 SERMON: “Breaking Barriers 2 God”
In today's passage, John tells his first century readers that in telling a Samaritan woman he is the Messiah, Jesus broke down several barriers to God.
This morning we’ll be looking at the barriers to God Jesus broke down by:
I. Going through Samaria
II. Talking with a Samaritan Woman
III. Staying with Her People
The first thing John tells us about Jesus breaking down barriers to God is that
A. He went through Samaria vv 1-6
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 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 noon.
Explanation:
v 4 "had to go" - Jesus' mission, not geography - Savior of all Humanity!
Jews often avoided Samaria by crossing the Jordan and traveling on the east side
biblical map of Israel
http://www.bible-history.com/geography/ancient-israel/samaria.html
Jews would become ceremonially unclean/defiled if they came in contact with Samaritans
Luke 9:52-54
52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
Samaritans - the mixed population of the former territory of the Northern Kingdom; people of mixed ancestry (half Jew/half non-Jew-Assyrian); OT - idolatry of polytheistic origins; NT - followed the teachings of Moses
Samaritan Bible - Pentateuch: Samaritans replace Israelites in text
Mt. Gerizem - Worship Center for the Samaritans
Luke 10:33 "But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him."
Luke 17:16 He threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him-and he was a Samaritan.
SCENE:
v 5 Sychar - small village near Shechem (Jacob bought land he gave to Joseph)
v 6 Jacob's well - half mile from Sychar; at the foot of Mt. Gerizem
noon - unusual time of day to be at the well - shunned due to her character?
Illustration:
A Mighty Evangel
Ravi Zacharius
Years ago, I read a definition of worship that to this day rings with clear and magnificent terms.(1) The definition comes from the famed archbishop William Temple: "Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose—all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable."
The more I have thought of that definition, the more I am convinced that if worship is practiced with integrity in the community of God's people, potentially, worship may be the most powerful evangel for this postmodern culture of ours. It is imperative in planning the worship services that church leaders give careful attention to every element and make sure that the worship retains both integrity and purpose. People come to church generally "beaten down" by the world of deceit, distraction, and demand. There is an extraction of emotional and spiritual energy that brings them on "empty" into the community. The church's task is to so prepare during the week that it is collectively the instrument of replenishment and fresh energy of soul. Even being in the presence of fellow believers in worship is a restorer of spiritual hope. We so underestimate the power of a people in one mind and with one commitment. Even a prayer can so touch a hungry heart that it can rescue a sliding foot in a treacherous time.
A few years ago, two or three of my colleagues and I were in a country dominated for decades by Marxism. Before we began our meetings, we were invited to a dinner hosted by some common friends, all of whom were skeptics and, for all practical purposes, atheists. The evening was full of questions, posed principally by a notable theoretical physicist in the country. There were also others who represented different elements of power within that society. As the night wore on, we got the feeling that the questions had gone on long enough and that we were possibly going in circles.
At that point, I asked if we could have a word of prayer with them, for them, and for the country before we bade them good-bye. There was a silence of consternation, an obvious hesitancy, and then one said, "Of course." We did just that—we prayed. In this large dining room of historic import to them, with all the memories of secular power plastered within those walls, the prayer brought a sobering silence that we were all in the presence of someone greater than us. When we finished, every eye was moist and nothing was said. They hugged us and thanked us, with emotion written all over their faces. The next day when we met them, one of them said to me, "We did not go back to our rooms last night till it was early morning. In fact, I stayed in my hotel lobby most of the night talking further. Then I went back to my room and gave my life to Jesus Christ."
I firmly believe that it was the prayer that gave them a hint of the taste of what worship is all about. Their hearts had never experienced it.
Over the years I have discovered that praying with people can sometimes do more for them than preaching to them. Prayer draws the heart away from one's own dependence to leaning on the sovereign God. The burden is often lifted instantly. Prayer is only one aspect of worship, but one that is greatly neglected in the face of people who would be shocked to hear what prayer sounds like when the one praying knows how to touch the heart of God. To a person in need, pat answers don't change the mind; prayer does.
Application:
Going to Forgotten People
So what is John's take home message for us today from this portion of John 4?
Jesus goes where he had to go because he is the Savior of all Humanity.
He transcended the racial and religious barriers that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans of his day by going through Samaria instead of around it on the East side of the Jordan River which was the customary thing for Jews to do to keep from becoming defiled.
Jesus overlooked racial and religious bigotries to reach out to others, to make connections, to be their Messiah, their Savior.
And Ravi Zacharius goes to Atheistic Communistic countries overcoming political and religious bigotries and boldly asks if he can a word of prayer with them, for them and for their country before departing after an evening in which the discussion was going nowhere.
Is John telling us this morning to shed our bigotries for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of our Savior, for the sake of our neighbor?
Is John telling us this morning to set aside, transcend, our racial, religious, cultural, and political bigotries so that we have to go through some Samaria?
Where is our Samaria?
Where do we "have to go" to bring the Good News, the Gospel, our Savior into the lives of others?
Is our Samaria today located right beneath our noses here in Wilmington, NC?
Transition:
John tells us another thing Jesus did in breaking down barriers to God.
B. He talked with a Samaritan woman vv 7-29
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.)
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.”
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 livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal 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.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, 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 the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
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?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
Explanation:
a. He Asked Her for a Drink v 7-9
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.)
MAJOR POINT = drinking vessel handled by a Samaritan - makes a Jew ceremonially unclean
POINT = rabbis don't talk publically to women
sarcasm = we Samaritans are the dirt under your feet until you want something
b. He Offered Her Living Water vv 10-15
v 10 "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.”
"if you knew" - trying to move her from the material to the spiritual
v 10 gift of God = God's grace through Christ - Jesus gives life freely
v 10 living water = eternal life
v 12 our father Jacob - the past preventing her from seeing the great present opportunity
(bolster importance of the Samaritans in the eyes of a Jewish rabbi)
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
v 15 welling up - "leaping up" - bubbling up from within (vs drawn up with hard labor)
- vigorous abundant life
v 15 - Woman's literal response to never being thirsty again is like Nicodemus' literal response to Jesus about not being able to literally re-enter his mother's womb to be born again in 3:4
v 15 Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
c. He Talked to Her about Her Life vv 16-18
Jesus request to call her husband: 1. proper (etiquette), 2. strategic (placed her in dilemma)
v 18 five husbands:
- Jews held that a woman might be divorced twice or at most three times,
-would have been considered immoral if Samaritan's held to same standard,
-not married to current partner
v 19 a prophet - special insight - Jesus shocked her! (no longer small talk but personal)
v the mountain - didn't like the way the conversation was heading - diversion, arguing
-Abraham & Jacob had built altars in the vicinity of Mt. Gerizim (Gen 12:7; 33:20)
- the people had been blessed from this mountain (Dt 11:29; 27:12 - Moses divided people concerning entrance to promise land, half on Mt Ebal [where altar constructed], half on Mt. Gerizim, Levites read the Law, people responded antiphonally)
-Samaritan Scriptures say Mt. Gerizim rather than Mt. Ebal is where Moses commanded an altar to be built
-Samaritans built a temple on Mt. Gerizim 400 BC - destroyed by Jews in 128 BC
d. He Told Her about True Worship vv 19-24
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, 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.
v 22 worship what you do not know - Samaritans worshipped the true God but in failing to accept much of his revelation (only the Pentateuch) knew little of him, confused due to syncretism (foreign deities + God)
v 22 salvation is from the Jews - the Messiah is a Jew
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
v 24 God is spirit... worship in spirit and in truth
- place of worship is irrelevant,
-true worship must be consistent with God's nature which is spirit (is light [1 jn 1:5], is love [1 Jn 4:8], is a consuming fire [Heb 12:29] = 4 nouns describing God in the NT
= worshipper must deal openly and honestly with God
-truth - associated with Christ in John's Gospel (14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life...)
-spirit & truth - important to the proper understanding of Christian Worship!
-God can't be confined to one place or be conceived of as a material being!
e. He Told Her He was the Messiah vv 25-26
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
v 25 Messiah... will explain everything - her last attempt to evade the issue (too important for them to work out!)
Samaritans expected a Messiah but knew very little about him having rejected all of Scripture expect the Pentateuch - mainly a teacher
Dt 18:15 Predicted by Moses to teach God's people all things "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him."
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
v 26 I... am he - only time other than at his trial that Jesus specifically says he is the Messiah
In Samaria in contrast to Galillee viewed spiritually vs politically and therefore given a hearing rather than viewed as a subversive statement
v 27 were surprised - Jewish religious teachers rarely spoke with women in public
V 29 everything I ever did - exaggeration but shows the impression Jesus made on her
v 29 Could this be the Christ? question full of longing
Illustration:
Ravi Zacharius definition of True Worship -
The Coalescence of Worship
One of the great longings of the human heart is to worship; yet, within that very disposition there are tugs in many directions that contradict the essence of worship. This fragmentation is felt in every life. But there is a further complication. The idea of worship itself is not monolithic or uniform when you get a glimpse of the different kinds of worship in which people engage.
The thirst for worship or for the sacred across cultures and across time is ineradicable (permanent, fixed) among the educated and the uneducated, the young and the old. During my days as a student at college in New Delhi, I well remember students seated around me with colored ash smeared on their foreheads, having visited the temple on their way to school. All over the world, churches, temples, mosques, and tabernacles abound. Sacred books still line the shelves of seekers after truth—the Gita, the Koran, the Bible. Religious ceremonies are performed and prayers are invoked in life’s most significant moments. Even a casual look at the record of human history reveals a fervent pursuit of spiritual things.
Jesus was very much aware of this bent within the human spirit. That is why He said worship should be done in truth, as well as in spirit. Without truth there is no limit to the superstition, deception, and sadly, even violence that can come in the name of religion. You see, worship alone cannot justify itself; it needs the constraints of truth, and that truth is the person and character of God. As an individual makes a commitment to God, not only is his or her life unified for God’s glory, but the impetus of truth is given for all other pursuits and relationships.
In other words, worship must not only be formal, it must also be substantive. You see, we humans are not a collection of isolated and unrelated senses just seeking expression. We are fashioned to bind these expressions by the character and reverence of God.
So much goes on in the name of religion today that must make us question whose character is being revealed in the process.
Worship that is true and spiritual binds all the diverse aspirations and propensities creating a tapestry of beauty and a life that is in harmony with the goodness and the holiness of God. So next time you pause to worship or even to observe it, ask the question: Is this what Jesus Christ meant when He said we are to worship God in spirit and in Truth?
Application:
Talking to Forgotten People
So in this section portion of John 4 today, what is he trying to tell us?
And how is God trying to change our heart through what John has written?
Jesus has gone into defiled territory, Samaria, and at a well asks a Samaritan woman for a drink of water - the ultimate in breaking down barriers.
Jesus is in Samaria, talking to a woman with a suspect past, asking to drink from a Samaritan's utensil.
Can't get much more defiled than that.
Can't break many more taboos than that.
Racial, Cultural, Religious, Sexual, Physical.
You name them He broke them all!
In talking to a woman who may have been such an outcast she had to go to the well during the hottest time of the day Jesus breaks every worldly barrier in reaching out to her, in connecting with her, as her Savior.
a. He Asked Her for a Drink v 7-9
b. He Offered Her Living Water vv 10-15
c. He Talked to Her about Her Life vv 16-18
d. He Told Her about True Worship vv 19-24
e. He Told Her He was the Messiah vv 25-26
Is John showing us just how far we must go in reaching out to others?
Is he showing us that we are to not let there be any barriers between us and other people when it comes to Him, when it comes to the Good News of His Resurrection!
And is he showing us how we are to reach out to others:
a. by being willing to risk it all
b. by sharing the Good News of His Resurrection
c. by getting to know other's pain so that
d. by not being afraid to talk with them about Truth, they will see it
e. by not being afraid to talk with them about the Jesus Christ they will come to know Him
And a second application may be related to what Ravi Zacharius tells us that with Truth as the person and character of God unifies our lives for God's glory as well as for other pursuits and relationships.
Ravi Zacharius tells us that with Truth as the person and character of God worship is transformed from isolated and unrelated senses just seeking expression into a substantive expression that is in harmony with the goodness and holiness of God.
So the tough question becomes: Are we worshipping in Spirit and Truth?
Does our worship consist of isolated and unrelated senses just seeking expression?
Or is our worship a substantive expression that is in harmony with the goodness and holiness of God?
Transition:
John tells us one more thing Jesus did in breaking down barriers to God
C. He stayed with Her People vv 30-42
30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 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.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
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.”
Explanation:
v 33 My food ... is to do the will of him who sent me
- depended on and did the will of the Father
- satisfaction of completing father's work > any food given to him
5:30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek to not to please myself but him who sent me.
v 35 Four months more and then the harvest - a proverb meaning "harvest can't be rushed"
-the fields Jesus referred to were ripe for harvest
- Samaritans leaving town coming across fields towards him ready for harvest
36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
v 36 draws his wages
- part of the work had already been done
- others working hard
- they were not to think the harvest was far off
- "the crop for eternal life"
- urgent - the crop would not wait!
v 36 glad together
- no competition among Christ's servants
- sowers and reapers both share in the joy of the harvest
v 37 - 1 Co 3:6-9
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
38 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.”
v 38 others - John the Baptist and his supporters or the work the apostles would build or looking back to the prophets and men of old - Jesus expect the disciples to be reapers as well as sowers.
two necessary and interrelated bases for belief:
1. testimony of others
2. personal contact with Jesus
-progression from faith built on testimony of witness of another to a faith built on their own experience
Illustration:
Ravi: Relationships 8:20
http://www.rzim.org/resources/listen/letmypeoplethink.aspx?archive=1&pid=2063
Application:
Staying with (Realting to) Forgotten People
Quickly, in this final section, what is John telling us and how does God want us to respond?
How much satisfaction do we derive from doing Our Father's will?
For Jesus this was more satisfying than any food he could be given even when he was physically tired and hungry.
Are we more concerned about our bellies than doing our Father's will?
And what is His will?
For Jesus it was to go wherever God led him, to break down whatever barriers existed between people because whatever barriers exist between people create barriers between people and God - and barriers interfere with relationship.
Barriers between people prevent the Good News of Christ's Resurrection from being taken from where it needs to go, from being shared with who it needs to be shared, from being heard from who needs to hear it and from being accepted by who needs to accept it.
Are we willing to do Our Father's Will?
Are we willing to overcome the barriers which exist inside of us in order to go, develop relationships wherever it is needed and make disciples of all nations?
Are we willing to overcome the barriers which exist inside of us in order to go and make disciples right here in Wilmington, NC - in the parts of this city where barriers need to be crossed by someone in order for the Gospel to be taken, shared, heard and accepted?
Transition:
John tells his first century readers that in telling a Samaritan woman he was the Messiah, Jesus broke down several barriers to God by:
I. Going through Samaria
II. Talking with a Samaritan Woman
III. Staying with Her People
Conclusion:
In this passage, John tells us today that in telling outcasts Jesus is the Messiah, we break down several barriers to God by:
I. Going to Forgotten Places
II. Talking to Forgotten People
III. Staying with (developing relationships with) Forgotten People
In the name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Amen.
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