Samaritan Woman At The Well | Doug Batchelor

mail inviting you to visit the church well i see some of you bless your hearts very good two of my neighbors came over uh and we sent cards to a number of zip codes surrounding the church saying we are open for business to come and visit us it wasn't worded that way but it looked really nice told about the times when we meet and the church and one of my neighbors said you didn't say what day you meet and we looked at the card we looked at the front we looked at the back we thought oh in the editing process we told what hour we meet and when our studies are we had taken off the day but fortunately at least my two neighbors they said well it says sda we know it's on saturday but you might want to put that on there next time so we're going to all probably have to come back again tomorrow because i think a bunch of people are going to show up tomorrow matter of fact one of my neighbors said do you guys meet sunday also i said not typically no so you might get some visitors well we're glad you're here if you're visiting and we hope that you find that we're loving christian people you know before i get into the message for today i did not want to let the occasion go unmentioned that of course tomorrow is the 4th of july it is the celebration of the birth of our country that you know we're thankful for the freedoms we enjoy to gather like this and worship according to our conscience but you know freedom is an expensive business i want to take you back not to 1776 but i want to take you back to 1863. probably one of the most famous speeches in history is only 250 words it's the gettysburg address and i remember going to the lincoln memorial and seeing it etched on the wall there lincoln at that occasion was invited to share a few appropriate remarks he was not the main speaker the main speaker was a a famous orator named edward everett who talked over two hours and lincoln was just supposed to say a few appropriate remarks and he jotted them down on a piece of paper on the train in route to gettysburg you know up to that point america had no military cemeteries this was the first military cemetery ground specifically dedicated to the soldiers and he prefaces his remarks pointing back to the fourth of july how many of you know at least the first line of the gettysburg address four score and seven years ago it's 87 years earlier it was july 4th from 1863. that's when america had thrown off the yoke of bondage and decided we're going to be a country a people without a king we'd have a church without a pope we'd have freedom of religion freedom of government four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal cursed country was in the midst of a civil war fighting over those principles because several southern states did not believe all men were created equal and lincoln said well we either believe it or we don't believe it if we believe it we should be ready to die for it because the revolutionaries died for that proposition now we're engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure can a nation this america was the first great experiment based on these freedoms and these principles can any nation like that endure it says and we're met now on a great battlefield of that war do you realize in the civil war more soldiers died than all american wars including afghanistan combined the gettysburg battle over 50 000 men died not counting how many were wounded now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure and we're met on a great battlefield of that war and we've come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live and it's all together fitting and proper that we should do this but in a larger sense we cannot dedicate we cannot consecrate we cannot hallow this ground the brave men living and dead who struggle here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract the world will little note nor long remember what we say here of the irony of that he thought no one would remember what he said no one remembers the two-hour speech the world will little nor long remember what we said here but we can never forget what they did for it is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work for which they who fought here have thus so nobly advanced it's rather for us to here dedicate be dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we'd take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain they died to provide freedom freedom is a bloody business if you're a christian your freedom costs jesus his blood that this nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom and that a government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth notice he says a nation under god he talks about new birth and he talks about shall not perish all taken from the gospel of john which is going to be our study today a year and a half later lincoln gave his blood and killed by someone who was pro-slavery freedom is a bloody business now you know friends i sometimes grouse and complain like you do if i get a new tax bill i'm not too happy with our government and there's a lot of dumb things that the government does you don't have to say amen i know you think it but um mrs batchelor and i have traveled all over the world and we don't plan on moving to another country people anyone that wants to leave america is always free but people are fighting to get in this country because of the opportunities and the freedoms we enjoy but don't forget it was very expensive so we're thankful for that can you say amen the freedoms we enjoy that is not our message for today our message for today i'm very excited about is from the gospel of john please take your bibles and join me as you turn to the gospel of john chapter four we're going to be studying the story of the samaritan woman at the well and this will be part one there are about 42 verses in this story and we're probably going to get through about 14 of them today and i'll read verses 1 through 14. then we're going to back up and this is going to sort of be an expository sermon where we're going to go verse by verse through this passage and find out what's happening here therefore when the lord knew that the pharisees had heard i'm sorry therefore when the lord knew that the pharisees had heard that jesus made and baptized more disciples than john being john the baptist though jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples he left judea and departed again to galilee but he needed to go through samaria so he came to a city of samaria which is called saikhar near the plot of ground that jacob gave his son joseph now jacob's well was there jesus therefore being weary from his journey he sent thus by the well and it was about the sixth hour a woman of samaria came to draw water and jesus said to her give me a drink for the disciples had gone away into the city to buy food then the woman of samaria said to him how is it that you being a jew ask a drink from me a samaritan woman for jews have no dealings with the samaritans jesus answered and said to her if you knew the gift of god and who it is that says 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've got nothing to draw with and the well is deep where do you get this living water are you greater than our father jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as well as his sons and his livestock jesus answered and said to her whoever drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that i will give will never thirst but the water that i will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life there's our passage that we're going to be taking a look at this is one of the beautiful stories in the bible that helps us to understand the gospel in john chapter 4 the woman at the well now keep in mind john chapter 4 comes after john chapter 3. this story is juxtaposed with nicodemus here you have two one-on-one experiences john chapter three he talks in nicodemus john chapter four the woman at the well john chapter three you've got an educated jew who is wealthy with a good reputation john chapter 4 you have an ostensibly uneducated non-jew who is poor and has a bad reputation john chapter 3 jesus speaks about the new birth and the pharisee doesn't get it he's thinking literally john chapter 4 jesus talks about the living water and the samaritan woman doesn't get it she thinks he's talking literally these stories are bookends in john chapter 3 it represents the jews the samaritans were the northern ten tribes there had been a big civil war the people in judea had stayed true to the lord they had the temple down there the samaritans had turned to the idols of bethel and dan and so there was this big rift between those two kingdoms even in the old testament jesus going from nicodemus to the samaritan woman is like the two bookends it's an alpha and omega jesus is saying i can save man woman rich poor educated uneducated religious non-religious saint sinner it's the whole spectrum is presented in these two stories do you see that so it's a wonderful study for us we're going to take it verse by verse and go through these 14 verses let's reread the first few verses again john 4 verse 1. and for our friends that are watching sometimes people say pastor doug how do you find the gospel of john in the first pages of your bible because you all you see i've got like that it's my notes so you see when you do television it costs a lot of money when we broadcast hundreds of dollars a minute and so the time i take looking for reverses i copy and paste on my computer notes every verse i'm going to read in here time economy i just have to say that every now and then because people seem mystified how's he finding revelation in the first book of his bible i said no i know it's in the back of the bible i copied it here it's the same thing exactly i just i pasted it here technology is great therefore john 4 verse 1 when the lord knew that the pharisees had heard that jesus made and baptized more disciples than john though jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples now did jesus believe in baptism he certainly did first thing he's baptized last thing he says go teach and baptize first thing in acts repent and baptize making a commitment to christ is very important to the lord so this was part of it but and it says though jesus personally did not baptize but his disciples baptized and when he knew that the pharisees had heard that he was baptizing more than john now in your bibles i want you to go to john chapter 3 we're just going to look at this real quick so you see john chapter 3 it's not very far verse 22 let's read this after these things jesus and his disciples came into the land of judea and there he remained it's after his time in jerusalem with nicodemus they go down probably towards the jordan a little bit there there's water and some of the tributaries to the jordan and there he remained with him and he baptized now john was also baptized in aenon near salem john is on the jordan river a little further north than where they are in judea because there was much water there and they came and they were baptized for john had not yet been thrown in prison then there arose a dispute between some of john's disciples and the jews about purification and they came to john and said to him rabbi he who was with you beyond the jordan speaking of jesus to whom you gave testimony saying he was the lamb of god behold he is and and all are coming to him john it's not fair everyone's leaving our denomination and they're going to their denomination they're leaving our group and they're going to his group now you know what john said so this is god's plan my i was supposed to introduce and announce jesus john the baptist said he must increase i must decrease my whole job was to transition people to channel people to christ and he said don't be jealous that they're following jesus that's why i pointed him out so now jesus group is going now why does jesus leave town because the pharisees who were already jealous about john the baptist having so many followers they didn't like john the baptist john the baptist he said you need to be baptized to the religious leaders they said us he said yeah you're a brood of vipers unless you repent and you're baptized you'll be lost and they were indignant about that well jesus is a he's cut from the same cloth as john the baptist in his preaching john the baptist said repent and be baptized jesus said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and so similar message but now jesus is getting so much more attention that it's getting the ire of the pharisees and jesus said you know we probably ought to start working in a different area right now because i better head back up to galilee where we're going to have less opposition it says he left judea and he departed again to galilee now christ told his disciples when he sent him out preaching matthew 10 verse 23 when they persecute you in this city arm yourself to the teeth for a battle now he said flee to the other jesus that if they persecute you in one place if you're not making headway go somewhere else keep on preaching he followed his own advice he said look i'm not trying to stir things up prematurely i know how my story is going to end it's not time for that yet so i'm heading up to galilee and then it goes on and it tells us he went up to samaria who were the samaritans we're going to take some time because they come up a lot in the whole gospel this is a great place to explain that in john 4 verse 3 and 5 it says he needed to go through samaria now you've got judea is in the southern kingdom north of judea you've got samaria then north of that you've got galilee galilee was not just the area around the coast of the sea of galilee sea of galilee sometimes called the sea of tiberias it's the same sea but it reached inland all the way up into nazareth and uh kina in that area that was also called galilee and most of jesus followers peter james john andrew phillip they were called galileans and they had an accent and it was a little different but uh they called that area samaria because the samaritans lived in this zone and you know there's you could take the river out and just go from the jordan right up to galilee but that was not very direct and so he needed to go through galilee but even more than that jesus had an appointment nothing jesus did was by accident he planned on going to the city in galilee and i think you'll see as we go on that it's was really a fulfillment of prophecy in many ways and he did it to teach a very important lesson to the disciples but the samaritans it says he came to a city of samaria which is called psychar near the plot of ground that jacob gave to his son joseph and you know where the name samaritan comes from how many of you remember ahab wicked king ahab he was married to what was her name jezebel we all know about jezebel she fixed her makeup and they threw her out the window remember that story no you've got to read the bible it's a great story ahab's father was called omrae amrai was one of the kings in the northern kingdom when they had a civil war against judah in the south amri wanted a new capital he didn't want everyone going to jerusalem so you read here in first kings chapter 16 verse 24 and umrah bought the hill of samaria from shemer for two talents of silver and he built on the hill and he called the name of the city which he built samaria after the name of shemer so there was some guy named shimer who lived a long time ago and all the samaritan's name is drawn from him and so that's where you get the name samaria i know it's a little corruption of the original name shimer but he owned this property he sold he became the new capital for the northern kingdom that was always at war with the southern kingdom but because of the idolatry in the northern kingdom they were the first ones to be judged by god and in 721 bc the assyrians came down they fought against the northern kingdom and the king of assyria took the ten tribes captive those ten tribes did not re-assemble now this is so important to understand the the tribe of judah benjamin and levi when they were taken to babylon they ended up coming back again they remained a unique distinct people but what happened when the ten tribes went to assyria they had already lived years on the border of assyria they began to intermarry with the assyrians and you're not going to find any people who are really distinct pure blood members of the tribe of issachar or ephraim or zebulun or naphtali or dan or any of the others the reason we use the word jew is because they're from the tribe of judah they did remain a lot more distinct what happened is they sort of intermarried with the uh syrians so these ten tribes are carried to the north and um then the king well let me read it to you here in the ninth year of hoshea this is second kings 17 6. we can have a little competition sorry in the ninth year of hoshide the king of assyria took samaria and carried israel away to assyria and he placed them in um and by hebor the river gozam in the city of the medes then the king of assyria brought people from babylon kulath ava hameth and from sepharavam and placed them in the cities of samaria instead of the children of israel and they took possession and they dwelt in the cities but the problem was they weren't completely they weren't completely believing in the god of judah they were still worshiping idols lions began to attack them and all these lions began to attack them they said what is it they said we must not know the god of the land so the king of assyria sent some priests that were left from the tribes down he said you better teach them about the god of the land so the lions will stop attacking them so they came to where they believed the five books of moses they practiced circumcision but then they were still involved in a different kind of corrupt worship so you read here in second kings 17 33 they feared the lord yet they served their own gods according to the rituals of the nations among whom they were carried away so the jews viewed the samaritans as sort of mongrels they were they were keeping some of their religion but they were really assyrian they are a semitic people you know where the word semitic when someone says you're anti-semitic people often think that means you're anti-jewish but if you don't like arabs you're anti-semitic the semitics are people who came from shem a shemite is a semitic and so it's not just jews it's actually any the semitic person who's from you know the arabic range there so they they didn't like them at all but what really was the deal breaker you know there's a lot of antipathy between the jews and the samaritans you know what it really did it you read in the book of ezra chapter 4 when they were starting to rebuild the temple they came the samaritans they came to zara bubble and the heads of the father's house and they said to them let us build with you for we seek your god as you do they said let's compromise i know we don't worship exactly the same but we worship jehovah let us help you build the temple and we've sacrificed to him since the days of esherhad and king of assyria who brought us here they admit we're imports but we also are worshiping your god with zero bubble and jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers in the houses of israel said to them you may do nothing with us to build a house for our god but we alone will build to the lord our god as the king cyrus king of persia has commanded us so they were spurned the high priest realized if we allow the samaritans to help us build they're going to bring their corruption of worship in and we're going to be back where we were before we got carried off to babylon they said no we cannot let you because you guys do not believe all of the scriptures you only believe the five books of moses and you're also involved in idolatry and they had a number so there was a war that broke out a spiritual civil war if you will between the samaritans and it goes on to say then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of judah they troubled them in building you've read the book of nehemiah they kept trying to stop them from building so instead of them saying let's join together now they became enemies that war went on all through the time of christ that's why jesus tells the parable of the good samaritan because and then the leper ten lepers are healed but the one who comes back to say thank you is a samaritan and so he often accentuates that god still loves samaritans even though they don't understand everything so the samaritans were persona non-grata as a matter of fact if you got really upset if you're jew and you wanted to cut someone down you would say you are demon possessed you're evil you're a dog and you're a samaritan and so it was so bad the reason that jesus is sitting by the well is because the disciples did not want jesus to risk contamination as they went into the nearby town of saikar to buy food because the jews were allowed to buy food from a samaritan but if a samaritan offered you something you are not to take it from them they did not want the shadow of a samaritan to land upon them because you the pharisees said you will be unclean if the shadow of a samaritan lands on you and i imagine that if the jews were buying food in the afternoon the samaritans had fun trying to get the shadows on them and just they're all running from them it was really bad so you've got to just know that when the disciples come back and jesus is talking to a samaritan they're like they're thunderstruck and what made things even more amazing it was not only samaritan it was a woman and you'll see that she's even shocked that jesus is talking to her so a little background here where was this meeting i already alluded to it it says john 4 6 now jacob's well was there it tells us it's in psychar a matter of fact you can see a map that's on the screen now psychar was in the middle of the promised land and in the middle of the promised land jacob had lived for many years in a place called shechem some of you remember the story in the bible where dana daina rather had had a brief affair with the prince of shechem and it ended up becoming a battle and that's where jacob was living during that time and during the many years that jacob lived in shechem psycho's right there in the same area he dug a well for all the flocks and the herds the wells were often not in the town because from these wells they would often water the fox and you don't want to live where there's too many flocks you got a lot of flies it's not always pleasant so they had this well outside the town but it was a dry country but a deep well and a very good well and that well is still there today in fact i think we've got a picture of that on the screen there it is it's all of course everything in in israel now they got a church on top of everything and so i don't know which denomination and maybe some orthodox church has this but there is jacob's well and it dates back to the time of jacob and it is still producing good water and it is a very deep well hand dug well and so this is a real story about a real place that place psychar is in the middle of the promised land it is between two mountains you had mount aguerism and mount evil and when the children of israel came into the promised land they were told that they were supposed to pronounce the blessings and the cursings from these two mountains they divided the tribes fifty percent six tribes went on one side and six of the twelve one on the other side with a valley between you know it was in the valley jacob's well when the children of israel came back into the promised land half of them lots a lot of people stood on one mountain half of them stood on the other mountain they re-read under the instruction of joshua the blessings and the cursings in fact you can read about this deuteronomy 11 29 now it shall be when the lord your god has brought you into the land that you go to possess you will put the blessing on mount gerism and the curse and mount evil blessings if you obey and like there one of them would say cursed is he that makes the blind to go out of the way and all the people would say amen so they had this whole narration that moses had given them you read in joshua 8 33 they finally did it then all of israel with their elders and officers and judges stood on either side of the ark before the priests the levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the lord the stranger as well as he who was born among them half of them in front of mount gerism half of them in front of mount evil as moses the servant of the lord had commanded that they should bless the people the bull's eye right in the middle of this whole thing was jacob's well so it's very significant that jesus has this instruction about living water at the place where the covenant was ratified in the middle of the promised land so it's at a will and i started thinking about it jesus talks to this woman at the well where did moses find his wife is that a well you remember he defended the seven daughters of jethro from these shepherds that were harassing them and he ended up marrying zipporah uh where did jacob find rachel i had a well not this well it was in heron and i always liked the way it said he removed this stone cover jacob must have been pretty strong it says he took the stone lid off himself he used to take several shepherds to do it and he saw rachel it says he kissed her and he wept so that must have been some kiss but it was out of well where did eleazar find a wife for isaac it was in heron it was biowell rebecca came out she watered the camels and by the way those shepherd girls back then you don't want to make a man because it says they would go out in the morning sometimes in the afternoon and they would fill their water pots they did not have in central plumbing and if you're carrying a porcelain pot that's got five gallons water try putting that on your head and when rebecca watered the caravan of camels you know one camel can drink 20 gallons of water and you've got to pull that out of a deep well by hand and then after you're done with that you go home and you milk goats don't make those girls mad i'm serious we had a neighbor up in the hills and they milked goats and the girls used to haul water and i remember one city boy uh he had put his eye on one of these teenage girls and introduced himself she shook his hand and squeezed his hand he went to his knees just for a milk and goats every day pretty strong so anyway so it's interesting that it all happened at a well moses jacob rebecca jesus is now at a well so i throw that in case there's any singles out there and you're wondering where you should be hanging out and it's in the city of saikhar the word psychar it means drunken and the word shechem this is the other city it means shoulder there may have been a hill that was shoulder shaped up there and then don't forget this it's in the middle of the promised land where the blessing and the cursing was and it says it's the well on the plot of land that jacob gave joseph now who was jacob's favorite son parents shouldn't be favorites but a lot of them do it favorite for isaac was who esau favorite for rebecca jacob who was jacob's favorite out of all his boys joseph and he made such a big deal out of the brothers became jealous it didn't play out well be careful about favoritism but it is safe to say and you can understand why that would be i mean jacob only wanted one wife he ended up with four he never wanted four he ended up with four wives and he just wanted rachel and the firstborn of rachel was joseph and so he had this special love for joseph joseph was the beloved son and so what you're looking at is you're looking at it says here's a story it's in the context of where the covenant was made it's by the water it's in a place where the father gave his beloved son the land have you read all the parables where it tells us that god has given the kingdom to his son this world is given to jesus so pay attention to where it was i think that's an interesting if there was ever a sacred well this is the one jacob drank from this well joseph and his brothers drank from this well joshua drank from this well elijah elisha king saul david and it's a got a lot of histories around this well in the middle of the promised land now when was the meeting what time of day well it tells us it was about the sixth hour sixth hour is what we would call noon it's this it's the high noon when did nicodemus come dark so here nicodemus comes in the dark this woman comes in broad daylight again look at the paradox but just between the two and it says it's a six hour when is it that peter goes on the roof to pray and he learns he's supposed to take the gospel to the gentiles sixth hour and here jesus is taking the gospel to a gentile the samaritan woman on the sixth hour when jesus was on the cross the six hour darkness suddenly covered the earth the middle of the day when you think it would be the brightest darkness came and not only do we know what time of day it was we know time of year it was because you can read in verse 35 i didn't read it during our verses earlier but you look in verse 35 it says do you not say there are still four months and then comes the harvest so this takes place four months before the harvest the harvest was usually the end of may the first of june this is happening the end of january so sometimes people portray and i probably have some paintings on the screen that jesus is with the woman at the well and it's a hot dry dusty time it's january it's probably a sunny day and it can still get warm in this country even in the winter during that time of year but it was probably like i said the end of january or something four months before the harvest doesn't say jesus is hot it says jesus is thirsty and just you notice that okay and it says while he's there john chapter 4 verse 7 a woman of samaria came to draw water and it's our next question who is this woman well she's one of the many people that lives in psychar and she's a samaritan now if it was bad for a jew to talk to another samaritan man it's unthinkable that you would talk to a samaritan woman do you know in the bible that there was a prayer in the talmud this is not in the scripture i said in the bible it's in the jewish teachings in the talmud some of the rabbis had a prayer and in that prayer they would thank god that they were not a gentile or a woman i'm not saying god endorsed that i'm just saying that the the attitude towards women was not very good during this time and so this woman comes from sumeria now she comes alone you know women didn't it wasn't safe for women to travel alone when they would get water in the morning or later in the day it was a social event the women always went to the well together matter of fact you can read when rebecca waters the camel's eliezer praised he says when it is time and the daughters of the land come out to fetch water the women would all go out together they did this for protection even with moses it was the sisters all came together they would always come together this woman's alone and we suspect that the women in psychard did not like her very much because the men in saikhar liked her a little too much now i know doesn't say that but we suspect no it does actually say she had five husbands so you know you don't get five husbands unless your fishing line is in the water quite a bit you know what i'm saying so she had a reputation she had five husbands and a character living with her she had a reputation she's not very popular with the women in town and she's coming in the middle of the day when they never came because she wants to come alone she may be something of an outcast but you find out later she talks to the men in the city they all know her so you've got this woman she's had five husbands and she comes she's not wealthy if she was wealthy you send the servant so she's a poor woman she's certainly intelligent she may not have formal education and jesus chooses this woman to reveal something great you know the lord delights in using simple instruments i love the way in the bible you see that jesus when he rises from the dead and he says now who shall be the first i would have done things very different from jesus when i if i was christ and i rose from the dead i would be thinking i'm going to show myself first to the high priest and say now what do you think you know or uh you know maybe the apostles peter james and john but jesus the first one he chooses to show himself to is mary that woman they said don't let her touch you she is a sinner and when god reveals the good news about the great bounty in the land he chooses lepers paul said not many wise not many noble jesus turned the world upside down you got a bunch of fishermen shepherds tax collectors common people that should be encouraging for most of us some of you are highly educated very wealthy and you might think what about me well he did reach you know some people like that too but uh i like that you know jesus shares the gospel with people that might be considered the off-scouring of society that means there's hope for sinners amen something else is this is a one-on-one meeting yes jesus preached to great crowds but christ had a heart for individuals as well you can think of a few other one-on-one meetings of course you go to john chapter 3 he's meeting one on one with nicodemus and you might be thinking how do we know what he said to nicodemus if it was a one-on-one meeting well nicodemus became a believer and he probably rehearsed the whole conversation how do we know what jesus said to this woman well she later became a believer and she probably shared with the disciples this is what the conversation was and so they were able to accurately record these things but it's not only that he has a one-on-one conversation with martha just before the resurrection of lazarus with mary magdalene at the tomb with a demoniac by the sea but the longest one-on-one conversation in the bible is jesus with the woman now i could be wrong but it's uh i think it's up there in the top and so this is a very important passage for us to consider i'm glad that jesus in that one-on-one relationship it tells us what he wants with each of us the time that he took to personally commune with her and answer her questions and probe what her greatest needs were he feels that way about every one of us the lord wants to have a one-on-one relationship with you he cares for each of us he loves each one of us something else we notice about this story you look in john 4 7. jesus says to her when she comes to the well she's ready to ignore him because like i said the samaritans they had to pass the jews all the time but yet just to give you one couple more little vignettes about the samaritans and the jews one time when jesus was passing through another town in samaria they said to jesus where are you going he said i'm going down to the feast they said if you're going to the feast to worship in jerusalem don't even come through our town you're not going to find any bed and breakfast here and they said because they said you're supposed to worship on mount gerism and james and john said lord give us the power of elijah we will call fire down from heaven and burn them all up and kill them this is what the apostles jesus followers i think probably still some apostles today that feel that way about others but this is what the apostles are saying to jesus and jesus said oh you don't know what spirit you're of i did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them they wanted to burn up a whole samaritan town and they would have said ah just like elijah we got bible for it but those samaritans they didn't even want jesus to come through their town if he was going to go to jerusalem so it's they were prepared to just ignore each other and so when she comes to get her water she can tell by the way he dressed that he's a jew maybe you know some of the jews they they had blue tassels to help them remember the law of god that's in the writings of moses and there were differences in their customs you could look right away and you could tell it's like you know if we have somebody that comes here and they're dressed wearing indian garb or african garb we'd be able to tell that well they could tell right away he's a jew or she's a samaritan and she planned on ignoring him but instead he kind of arrests her her thinking and he asks her for a favor he says give me a drink now when you go from aramaic or greek to english it might sound like an order implied in here is a polite request so he's not saying give me a drink he's saying it like you and i would say please give me a drink there's kindness in this that doesn't always come through in the translation some languages so one of the things you notice right here jesus is thirsty jesus had a human body he was 100 divine and 100 human but you read just in this one story he says i'm thirsty please give me a drink it says in verse six he was weary from his journey did jesus get tired like we get tired did he get sore muscles yeah and then it says the disciples had gone away to buy food he's hungry now you think about this this is amazing to me i just have a picture in my mind that um the disciples go they said look lord we gotta go buy food we don't have enough to get us all the way to galilee there's a town here in psychar we're going to go get some food you sit down and rest we see how tired you are you were ministering bapti you're doing all this ministry down there when we were baptizing in judea and we've walked it's a very long rugged walk a lot of up and down hill rocks and stuff they said you sit here and you rest and hopefully there was maybe a little shade but we don't know that and so he's sitting there and they walk away and he's by himself here is the creator of the heavens and the earth and he can't get a drink and he looks off in the well and takes a little rock he drops it off and goes and he can see his reflection ripple down the bottom of this well but he can't get the water he's got to depend on somebody else to give him the water jesus could have said i'm gone water cup i mean he could have done that but he accepted our lot do you know jesus never ever performed a miracle for his own benefit he always used his power because it was going to benefit others i'm sure when he multiplied the bread to feed the people there was something left over for him but he principally used his power to be a blessing to others and he said will you please give me a drink i like this and desire of ages that beautiful book on the life of christ there's a quote the king of heaven came to this outcast soul asking a service at her hands he who made the ocean who controls the waters of the great deep who opened the springs and the channels of the earth rested from his weariness at jacob's well and was dependent upon a stranger's kindness for even the gift of a drink of water now jesus actually uses some good psychology there if he had offered her something right then she would have ignored him but because he requests a drink of water if you live in the middle east back then that was one of the uh the smartest things you could do so jesus you notice something in verse nine he ignores the racial barriers that's a good lesson for us now that his disciples are gone he just he shows her the same kind of respect he knew that they would have been really shocked they find out when they come back she's shocked the woman of samaria said to him how is it that you being a jew asking a drink from me a samaritan woman for jews it's like she's saying don't you know the jews have no dealings with the samaritans where have you been haven't you heard this is how we're supposed to treat each other and jesus totally ignores that and engages her you know it's also we're going to deal in our next message about some of the lessons we can learn from about evangelism and the story of jesus and the woman at the well the disciples have gone to town to try to spare him exposure to the samaritans and here she is he's talking to a samaritan woman acts chapter 10 verse 34 and 35 peter opened his mouth and he said in truth i perceive that god chose no partiality but in every nation whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him this is a very very important verse did you hear what i want to give it to you again because i don't know if everyone caught it when i first said it acts 10 34 and 35 people ask me the question periodically pastor doug what about all these people who lived in australia africa south america they never heard about the gospel until missionaries came to him you know 2 000 years ago or 500 years ago were all of those thousands and millions of people were they all automatically lost because they could never hear the gospel there are some churches that teach yes because it is true there's only one name given among men whereby we are saved nobody is saved by their works everyone who is saved is saved by jesus amen but there are some people in these countries who haven't heard jesus name but they're listening to jesus spirit that's why peter said he opened his mouth in truth i perceive god shows no partiality but in every nation whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him there is hope for these people but some of these people don't know about god that's why missionaries need to go it's the exception but there are exceptions did god have naaman who was did did elijah stay with that woman of tyre and zidon there were people that god heard their prayers so we've got to be careful about being exclusive and thinking i'm fortunate because i'm christians i've got a bible i know there's not going to be anyone in heaven but us i think when we get there we're going to be finding out that there were people in every land who threw the spirit through angels they walked in the light that they had and in spite of the darkness around them a god is going to show mercy on them and so i'm not in that group of pastors that is dogmatically excluding the rest of the human race that maybe didn't have the benefit of a missionary i don't think that's reasonable matthew 10 42 it says and whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple he will not lose his reward you know even in the arab culture if someone asked for a drink of water they would go out of their way it was considered the highest service to give water to someone who is thirsty especially in this more arid region and so when jesus said can i have a drink of water she felt terribly conflicted she planned on ignoring that jew at the well but now he's just played that card of a drink of water and he is she is required by the just the custom of a deeply and great custom that if someone is thirsty even if it's your enemy you give them a drink of water and so he uses this to now she says you're not supposed to ask for that knowing the gift of god what's his response to her john 4 10 jesus answered and said to her if you knew the gift of god now when he says the gift of god what is the gift of god it's in the previous chapter god so loved the world he gave his son so when jesus said if you knew what is eternal life that they might know you the only god and jesus christ whom he has sinned if you knew the gift of god friends do you know the gift of god jesus is the gift and who he doesn't say what it is who it is that says do you give me a drink you would have asked him how do we get eternal life how do we get the living water ask you would have asked him and he would have given you living water now is that just a metaphor that was true back then or is it still true today that god offers living water have you ever been thirsty i mean have you ever really been thirsty now i lived in the desert and i got lost in deserts once in nevada once in the mountains of southern california i got lost in a place where they've actually made national geographic programs about people who got lost and died up where i live it was a hot rugged steep desert mountain nathan went up there with me during covet he had never been there and he'll testify that is a rough rough country i woke up one morning with my friend greg he's the one who gave me the great controversy by the way we used to go hiking and we'd take these little day packs with us we go exploring we go looking for caves we'd find indian artifacts we just go looking hiking these desert mountains because there's nobody out there so rugged so we went exploring and um we used to play a little game to see who is the toughest you know we we'd go on hiking uphill and whoever said let's stop and rest we figured you were weaker you know we were young man you got too much testosterone you're trying to prove something to somebody and so we'd be hiking along and if you had to stop and you said i need a drink you're weak so we'd both try and see who could go the longest without saying i need a breath or i need a drink so we went up exploring we're plotting along and i'm going man i'm dying but i'm not going to tell him so i just keep going finally we get to this great lookout where obviously it was a great place there we're miles away from the water and the canyon and and this is palm springs and it's hot desert sun's coming up getting hotter finally we sit down and i said okay i need a break all right we need a break we sit down and uh i said you got the trail mix he said uh yeah i got the trail mix i said you got the water he said no i thought you had the water he always brought in his day pack a whole gallon of water and yeah we didn't mind sharing back then any of you remember the days when you're kids and you used to like share a coke bottle with your friends and you weren't worried about pandemics and contamination how did we survive i don't understand it it's amazing eat three pounds of dirt growing up and you somehow survive and anyway so i said you don't have the water i said you kidding he said looks at me and he says you don't have the water i said i don't know the water and we said oh well that ought to be priority one and i don't remember one of us said there should be water over in chino canyon this other canyon that was off so we went hiking now we're getting thirsty we're really thirsty and we get down to this canyon and the place where there normally was water they were not year-round pools they're dry as a bone we hike up and down thinking we'll find a pool somewhere in the canyon it's all dry you get to a place where you can't hike any further down because there's a cliff the water goes over waterfalls you can't go all the way down so we have to retrace our steps now we are really really thirsty and do you know when you get thirsty enough i always what's the thing in the back of your throat what do you call that the dooley dad that hangs down back there do you know when you get what's it yeah whatever that was that's what it is and you get thirsty enough and that swells up most of you have never been that thirsty but and you try to swallow it you can't i found that out but it it's swole up and your lips are chapped you can't lick your lips they just split your lips are chat and just you're all dehydrated you're not thinking clearly and you're stumbling you you lose your balance when you get dehydrated you're stumbling along and we got so thirsty and we had to hike over these two hills and we realized the final shortcut we knew there was water back down in our canyon the closest place was a place where it was called uh clear pool and uh it got to where we were over the edge and we could hear off in the distance water trickling and we're going downhill we're skinning our knees we're running into cactus that we would normally try to avoid don't even stop to pull it out your little toy balls sticking to your legs because all you can think about is water and my sandals broke and so i pick up my broken sandal i'm hiking with one good sandal one bad sandal and we got over the hump and we got down to where the uh we looked and there was in the canyon there's this one pool it looked like a big peanut shaped pool sandy bottom turquoise cold water and greg got there before me because i had a broken sandal and he got down on his knees and he put his face in the water and he started to drink i just jumped over the top of him right into the water and started i thought i want to soak it up through every pore and i just started drinking the water and whenever i hear jesus say are you thirsty do you want a drink of water you know some wonderful passages in the bible about jesus offering us that living water you can read here and i've got several verses that talk about this what is the living water jesus said if you ask me i will give you the living water what is that water here it is genesis 1 verse 2 and the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the waters it's the holy spirit isaiah 44 verse 3 for i will pour water on him who is thirsty what is the promise he that hungers and thirsts will be filled and floods on dry gowns i will pour my spirit bingo there you have it what is that water the holy spirit if we ask jesus he said if you knew the gift of god and who it is that talking to you you would ask for him that living water jesus said if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father in heaven give what the holy spirit to them that ask him friends are you thirsty it says if we hunger and thirst for righteousness we will be filled he will give us that living water last words in the bible revelation 21 are some of the last words he says i am the alpha and the omega the beginning in the end i will give the fountain of the water of life freely he'll give it freely to him that thirsts friends are you like that woman at the well you're finding that the things the world don't satisfy and you're thirsty for something better you feel like maybe you're alone and sinful and separated from god and jesus he goes out of his way to come to your city of psycho to meet you because he wants to save you he wants to give you that living water he wants a one-on-one relationship with you he says if you knew the gift of god you would ask him and he would give you freely that living water how many of you like to say lord i'm thirsty please give me that living water the holy spirit wash away my sins and help me to have that relationship with you is that your prayer then we're gonna think about it why don't you stand it'll be in your hymnals if you have one there and it's also on the screen 493 fill my cup and then we'll pray as we conclude that could not satisfy [Music] of my soul [Music] there are millions in this world who are craving the pleasures earthly things but none can match the wondrous treasure [Music] lord i lift it up lord come and quench this thirsting of my soul bread of heaven fade me till i want no more so my children if the things this world gave [Music] him and humbly pray feel like a lord i lift it up lord come and quench this thirsting of my soul bread of heaven lead me to [Music] i'd like to say lord give me that living water amen father in heaven we're so thankful for this story that shows jesus love for every individual and the journey that he's willing to make from heaven to earth from judea to samaria to save even one lord i know that you want to give us this living water you said that you came into the world to seek and to save the lost and we all qualify lord i pray that right now we can experience your cleansing that living water the holy spirit coming into our minds and our hearts and help us to have that that artesian well within each one of us that will satisfy please bless lord each person in their lives i pray that we'll find comfort and encouragement from jesus and help us to sense your presence all the time as we go from this place today we thank you and we pray in christ's name amen god bless you friends you have a blessed sabbath remember of course that we receive our offering still at the door so you'll see your ushers and deacons out there and we appreciate your faithfulness there as well god bless

Channel: Doug Batchelor

Views: 42,016

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Id: OA8rVvxi5tA

Length: 61min 15sec (3675 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 03 2021