The Samaritan Woman at the Well Pt. 2- Doug Batchelor

we'll see how the holy spirit leads i don't want to always blame the holy spirit if i go long a lot of pastors do that you know but we're going to see what we can learn it's important because i know some are here maybe for the first time if you did not hear part one to just have a little bit of review it also helps us who even were here to kind of get the context so turn in your bibles please to the book of john john chapter four and while you're doing that i thought maybe i'll share a few facts with you i like amazing facts you know about water 785 million people in the world today lack access to clean water that's one person out of every ten in the world cannot find safe drinking water only about three percent of the water in the world is fresh water and of that three percent only one point two percent can be used as drinking water the rest is locked up in glaciers and ice caps and it's inaccessible 75 percent of americans are chronically dehydrated you're going to be thirsty after this sermon i seriously thought about going to walmart and getting a whole bunch of those little bottles that we could distribute after the service in 37 percent of americans the thirst mechanism is so weak it's often mistaken for hunger even mild dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as three percent this is why a lack of water is the number one trigger of daytime fatigue a university of washington study revealed one glass of water will shut down mid midnight hunger pangs for a hundred percent of dieters that were studied there's a very important tip now if you drink a glass of water in the middle of night you may have other problems but it'll take care of the hunger problem raspberries apples blueberries and mangoes are more than eighty percent water a tomato is ninety five percent water preliminary research indicates that eight to ten glasses of water today could significantly ease back pain and joint pain for up to eighty percent of sufferers a lot of it is your joints just don't have enough lubrication i guess a mere two percent drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory trouble with basic math and difficulty in focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page drinking five glasses of water daily decreases decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45 percent plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by seventy nine percent and one is fifty percent less likely to develop bladder cancer just by drinking five glasses of water a day now this is not talking about five cups of tea or coffee or coca-cola or pepsi or mountain dew or rock star or monster but a lot of people don't drink water anymore a newborn baby is 78 percent water of course they're in a water sack when they're born adults are normally 55 to 60 percent water water is involved in about everything our body does it's the blood through this hydraulic system that brings all the nutrients and cleanses all the waste in our bodies and it's interesting there's more different kinds of water you can buy and drink today than at any other time in history i just walk up the aisle in the typical supermarket you're going to see lemon water and lime water raspberry water sugar water non-sugar water energy water antioxidant water all different kinds of water and i've never seen living water but this is what jesus is offering you today amen are you thirsty yet let's go to john 1 and i want to i'll quickly review i'll do my best i just want to get the backdrop of what's happening here john chapter 4 verse 1 sorry john chapter 4 verse 1 therefore when the lord knew that the pharisees heard that jesus made and baptized more disciples than john meaning 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 jesus realized there was going to be more opposition as the pharisees and his enemies found out that he was becoming even more popular than their arch enemy john the baptist who called them all a brutal vipers and he thought this is not going to go well i better get out of dodge so he starts heading back to the country where he has more reception which is galilee but he needed to go through samaria once again samaria had a long history with israel back in the days when there was a civil war after solomon died the son of solomon rehoboam had a civil war with the ten tribes to the north that were then ruled by jeroboam and ever since that day there was a big split in israel the religion in the north began to compromise they got involved in idolatry then they were conquered by the assyrians and most of them were carried away captive some of the poor of the land were left there and the assyrians then brought in their own people and then the assyrians intermarried with those from the 10 tribes that were left in the land and they their capital was samaria they became known as samaritans and for most of the time was a brief period of peace during the time of jehoshaphat but just about every other century they were at war with judah in the south and by the time of christ the samaritans and the hatred between the jews and the samaritans was so deep that you are not allowed to go to a samaritan's house if you ate a samaritan's food it would be rendered it would be treated as though you had eaten pork and if you drink something from the samaritan it would be like drinking blood that's what some of the the rabbis had written so it's very ingrained hostility between the two so as they're going through this country jesus they get up near a town called sikar in the bible it was also right next to the same district called shechem you can read about shechem shechem is where jacob lived he watered his flocks there his sons were there some of you remember there was a city in shechem and dinah the only listed son a daughter rather of jacob she had a romance with the son of the king of shechem and ended up breaking out into sort of a battle between the sons of jacob and the people of shechem they went and sort of annihilated the men but there's a long history from this territory it was in the middle of the promised land shechem was right between the mountain of blessing in the mountain of cursing mount gerizam and mount evil and it was like the very heart of where the covenant had been renewed was in this spot so it's in this spot jesus weary from his journey believe it or not he's 30 but he's the oldest probably in the group the other young whippersnappers he says well why don't you go get provisions they were allowed to buy from the samaritans so they go into the village of saikar right by shechem jesus stays outside of town they had these wells outside of town where jacob had dug the well not only could you draw water for yourself but they had troughs next to the well they would pull up the water out of the well some was used for humans and others were poured into the trough for the sheep there's a story about where jacob did that for rachel you remember and moses did it for um the daughters of jethro and so it's not just jesus sitting on a well there may have been a tree or some shrubs there but there's usually a trough nearby and so he's resting it's december we figured that last time we studied because jesus said is it not yet four months till the harvest that would put this at december harvest would be end of april or beginning of june somewhere in there and so it may be cool but it's a sunny day it's the middle of the day so jesus is alone and then he has this meeting with a woman who comes alone so he sits down by jacob's well and by the way the well is still there today if you want to run over to israel you can see it in samaria and there are still samaritans that live there today jacob's well was there jesus therefore being wearied from his journey it's you know quite a walk to go from judea up to galilee where so you said jesus did not ride in a carriage he did not ride on a horse he took the poorest means of communication he sat with us by the well we remember from our study that jesus is very human he's hungry they're going to get him food he's tired he's sitting to rest and he's thirsty we'll find out in a moment and it's about the sixth hour and a woman of samaria came to draw water and jesus said to her give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food then the woman of samaria says to him how is it that you being a jew she could look and tell partly maybe from his accent partly from his attire the jews wore sometimes tassels on their clothing and it was different from the samaritans they dressed a little more like gypsies and it was pretty clear and she said you're a jew you're not supposed to talk to me not only because i'm a samaritan but i'm a woman and so she's kind of shocked by this for the jews have no dealings with the samaritan's heavens you heard jesus answered and said to her boy if you only knew if you knew the gift of god i mean here she is next to the creator of the universe isn't that right all things that were made were made by christ she is right there talking to the creator of universe and she's saying you shouldn't be talking to me and he's thinking boy if you only knew the privilege that i'm talking to you who it is and the gift of god god so loved the world he gave his son she's talking to the gift of god is she saying if you only knew this you would have asked him here i am ask me what does god say to us ask and you'll receive you would have asked him and he would have given you living water you've come here for water but you're going to get old eventually and die i've got water that you drink it it'll satisfy you in this life and it will be providing eternal life which is in the later passage well she's mystified by this statement she's mystified he's even talking to her and she says sir you how are you going to get me living water you don't have anything to draw with you got no bucket or pitcher and the well is deep you can't reach it by hand where then do you get that living water are you greater than our father jacob she's looking at him and thinking that this man's got a holy demeanor about him she thinks is this someone even greater than our patriarch jacob who gave us this well who drank from it himself and of course jacob's dead isn't he so that water as great as jacob was didn't give you eternal life he drank from it as well as his sons and his livestock and jesus answered and said here now don't mention miss the point livestock cattle sheep goats jesus answered and said to her whoever drinks this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that i will give him will never thirst but the water that i will give him will become in him a fountain its artesian a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life i'll tell you i've i've got a deep appreciation for natural wells and you live out in the hills and and just last week we've got a spring in front of our house and we had dug a pond there where the spring is we don't drink the water but it was a nice wildlife pond and um over the years 20 25 years go by it fills up with cattails and in the rains it fills up with kind of just silt and it kind of all closed in and grown over and just had a little clear spot in the middle and i said oh we gotta we gotta drain that dig it out so last year i drained it this year i'm digging it i was digging last week with the bulldozer and i put the blade down and you know it's pretty hot it's 100 degrees outside put the blade down i scraped out another layer of clay and pushed up and water began to bubble out of the ground i'll tell you you don't know the feeling because if you got water you got life and so when you scraped i saw it coming i said but it was a problem i said wait it's going to turn to muck overnight sure enough it filled up overnight and i had this we had to dig another ditch to drain it so i can dig it but what a nice problem to have is to have water coming up out of the ground you don't have to drop a bucket you don't have to pump which is coming up jesus says i've got water that i'll give you that will bubble to the surface what does it say in the 23rd psalm my cup runs over the lord wants to give you artesian life that comes in you it's like you know with jesus the bread multiplies with jesus you can fill all the jars and it keeps on coming the more of jesus you give away the more you have to give and the holy spirit does that in our hearts he says i am ready to give you this living water and so with that i want to now that we caught up by the way with verse 14 we caught up with where we are last week so let's pick it up there and there's still plenty to learn in this story want to review who is this woman that says he's a woman of samaria she comes alone she evidently is something of a social outcast she does confess to jesus as you know that she's had five husbands and she's living with another guy that's a total of six so far and the reason that the other women in the town don't like her very much is because the men in the town liked her a little too much she comes to the well alone that's not normal we read in the bible where when rachel went out and eliezer was looking for a wife i'm sorry rebecca and it says when the daughters of the land come out to draw water they used to come together it was a social event she's alone she's not coming in the cool of the day or in the twilight of the afternoon she's coming in the middle of the day sounds like she's deliberately trying to avoid company and gossip she's not rich or she would have a servant drawing the water and but she's she's intelligent she's a samaritan and she's thirsty so jesus says anyone who drinks the water that i offer if you would ask if you knew the gift of god he'd give you this living water so she says okay i don't know where your bucket is i don't know where your rope is i don't know where your well is but sir give me that water and this is what you read now in verse 15 the next verse the woman said sir give me this water that i might not thirst nor come here to draw friends she asks i wonder how many people got that close to asking and they didn't cross over when you ask you give god permission to invade the devil's territory when you ask you give god permission to do things he otherwise will not do if you do not ask there are so many prayers he doesn't pray he doesn't answer because we don't pray them matter of fact jesus says ask that your joy might be full you receive not because you ask not he said if you knew the gift of god you would ask she did now she did it maybe with a little sarcasm which is i don't know where your well is i don't know where your rope is i don't know where your picture is but give me that water you know the first few prayers that i prayed i did with some skepticism you know some of you might come to the lord like that father that said i believe help my unbelief you may have doubts but you come anyway that gives the lord enough permission you crack the door enough where he can get in and she said all right i i've got doubts but give me that water and that's when jesus said okay he rubbed his hands together he said now now we can start cooking you've asked you've opened the door and he starts saying i want to give you that living water but some things have to happen first now i want to review again what exactly is the living water that she's asking for read in john 7 verse 37 to 39 jesus is speaking i'll let you find that verse i hear the rustle of the pages i love that john 7 37 if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink he who believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water but he spoke concerning the spirit what is the living water it's the holy spirit that he wants to give us let me give you some other verses isaiah 44 verse 3 for i will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods on the dry ground i will pour my spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring you know one of the things about water it's a great analogy for the holy spirit that's why baptism repent be baptized and you will receive the gift of the holy spirit baptism is in water there is no life where there is no water there is no life where there is no water all life requires water if something is 100 dry and dead even a seed if a seed is a hundred percent dry it will not sprout it manages somehow to encapsulate some water that keeps it alive sometimes for millennia but it needs that little bit of humidity or it will not germinate it's just a miracle no water no life revelation 22 17 last chapter last book of the bible and the spirit the what the spirit and the bride say come and let him who hears say come let him who thirsts come and let him take the water of life god is offering us the holy spirit everybody who's saved will have the holy spirit know it's interesting that in john chapter 3 who is the character in john chapter 3 nicodemus you know you must be born again and he talks about being born of the spirit and then you go to john chapter 4 he talks about the water so you've got both happening here between john chapter 3 and john chapter 4 and jesus said unless you are born of the water and the spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven so that water is the holy spirit now before he can fill her with the holy spirit he must cleanse her vessel and before he can cleanse her vessel there must be conviction so jesus suddenly changes course he needed her to experience conviction so he could cleanse her and comfort her and commission her and fill her with the living water in john chapter 4 verse 16 he said go call your husband and come here oh oh my jesus you know sometimes when you do target practice you've seen what a target looks like you got the circles you get the bullseye in the middle you've got rings various number of rings and your object is to get close to the bull's-eye as you can right the middle jesus hit the bull's-eye it's it's sort of like you know if you're on a boat and uh over time if you're on a large boat it just doesn't matter how good your boat is eventually condensation maybe little leaks are happening and you get this fluid that builds up in the bottom of the boat it's called the bilge and it's not pretty especially in the ancient ships the building was pretty bad and it it began to mold and stink and it was in the dark and everything kind of ran to the lowest point so at the lowest point on many of the ships they had a pump on the new boats now because you can go so fast they got a plug you pulled the plug you hit the gas and all the water goes out of the bilge but they couldn't do that back then so they had a pump and they put the pump down at the lowest point and they'd pump from that lowest point jesus he pointed right at the lowest point he said go call your husband uh she said i i think she's probably looking around a little bit and going how did we end up here she felt a terrible arrow of conviction sting her heart because there was this sin in her life and there was part of it that the community knew about there was a whole lot of it nobody knew about except jesus and she could tell from the look on his face that he read her entire life go call your husband and bring him here and the woman said i have no husband ah jesus said you've said well i have no husband for in fact you've had five husbands and the one that you now have is not your husband which means you're living in adultery so you you spoke truly he's positive on the end he says well you're you're honest you're confessing the truth he got right to the heart of the problem and that one thing everything was laid open you see she had been looking for happiness as so many people do and she was trying to find satisfaction through earthly relationships and she kept dissatisfied and you can't help but wonder if it was that she had picked five bad husbands and was living with one guy or could it be that there might have been something wrong in her heart if you go through five husbands unless they all die of natural causes or even unnatural causes but if you get divorced five times you have to start looking in the mirror and wondering is there no good husband in the world anywhere or maybe i could also be difficult so probably she had her issues is that right is that safe to say six men did not satisfy her it's interesting now jesus is the seventh this woman represents the church i think you'll see as we proceed she represents christ taking the gospel to the gentiles mark chapter 12 verse 22 remember that parable that the pharisees put to jesus so the seven had her and left no offspring last of all the woman died it's interesting that jesus is the seventh who finally gives her that living water isaiah 4 1 and in that day seven women will take hold of one man saying we'll eat our own bread and we'll wear our own apparel only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach you got several little analogies like this in the bible where it talks about one man seven women seven women one man and it's just trying to illustrate that uh some people just are not finding happiness in their earthly relationships so then the subject changes she says that he and jesus said you spoke the truth you you you don't have any husband instead of running to call her husband she says well this would be a good time to talk about religious issues i think she's trying to shift the subject a little bit and she starts to talk about where they ought to worship and jesus indulges her and so now she talks about true worship john 4 verse 19 the woman says sir i perceive you're a prophet our father since i've got a prophet here and i've got your undivided attention i'd like to ask a question that's a big dispute between the jews and the samaritans the big issue was where should they worship because the jews said that god had directed david to build the temple on mount zion which he did and the samaritans said no god directed us to build the temple on mount gerism and that's where they worshiped and there's a big battle about worship and it was so intense some of you remember i think i mentioned this last week jesus was on his way another time from galilee to jerusalem to worship at the feast and on his way through samaria he wanted to stop one of the local inns and the town says if you're on your way to worship at that jewish temple don't bother stopping here it was that intense and james and john said lord give us the power of elijah we'll bring down fire from heaven and burn up the whole town like sodom and gomorrah and jesus said you don't know what spirit you're of i mean that's that's how deeply ingrained it was about which mountain to worship on she said all right you are prophet let's hear the final word where do we worship and so jesus answers her and in verse 21 but before i get to that i want to talk a little bit about worship here she is standing next to jesus and she's asking where she should worship should i be worshiping north monterism or south on zion and jesus is saying you ought to be worshiping right here you're at the feet of god you're at the foot of your maker and she's looking i should i worship on that building in the marble building there should i be worship up here on this building and you know real christians should worship god all the time i heard a pastor on television i won't tell you what his name was but he was making fun of seventh-day adventists because we talk about special worship on the seventh day and he said oh they may worship on saturday but i worship god seven days a week well we believe in worshiping god seven days a week too don't we we believe we should worship god in all that we do we should worship god in what we eat and what we drink and what we wear in our giving in our songs in our praying in our study in our witnessing we should be worshiping god all the time our lives should be demonstrating the worship of god the big battle through the bible bible and it's going to be the culmination is about how to worship god the reason that cain killed abel was over worship and why is it that the beast kills those that have the seal of god because they will not worship the beast the whole issue is about worship so you've got to understand this friends we worship god seven days a week amen yes we keep the sabbath and for these pastors who say well you only worship god one day a week i say no god tells us to rest and if you're telling people to rest seven days a week you're lazy not holy he tells us to come together and corporate worship is something different right so that's not a good argument don't fall for that if you ever hear that the word worship means worth ship going back to the early english it means you're acknowledging the value the worth of someone it means to honor to reverence as a divine being or a supernatural power or to regard with great or extravagant respect honor or devotion following up with to perform or to take part in worship or the act of worship it means to revere to adore to love so she's saying now where should we worship should we worship jerusalem or samaria and jesus goes on he makes this startling statement many people miss you'll only find this one place in the bible john 4 21 jesus said to her woman believe me now you can understand that might be a verse you'd want to underline what does a woman represent in bible analogy so if we were to point to the woman today it's we're the bride of christ right and jesus says woman believe me there's the gospel woman believe me the hour is coming notice that he says it twice the hour is coming when you will neither worship on this mountain he nods to mount gerism which is right there they're right at the foot of mount gerizim nor in jerusalem worship the father you worship what you don't know jesus is telling us samaritan says you guys don't know what you're worshiping they only believed in the five books of moses and there's a lot of confusion among the samaritans and they co-mingled it with idolatry you worship what you don't know we know what we worship we meaning the jews listen for jesus said for salvation is of the jews now that settles it when jesus said salvation is of the jews there are hundreds of different religions in the world there's only four or five major religions you've got christianity you've got islam buddhism hinduism and then you know you've got sikhism and thousands of other different religions but jesus said salvation is of the jews the bible was produced by the jewish nation now the prophets were all jewish there is a little segment nebuchadnezzar wrote his testimony in there when he turned to god but the rest of the bible is written by jews that doesn't mean all jews are saved paul says to the jews and this is in romans chapter 2 verse 1. romans sorry romans 3 verse 1 and 2. what advantage has the jew then or what prophet of circumcision much in every way chiefly because to them here's the main reason there's an advantage to them were committed the oracles of god to the jewish nation they were the guardians of the word of god and they then it's passed on to the church now and so we have that but the jews are the ones who wrote it down they protected even through captivity the word of god so they got the truth of god they may misinterpret it sometimes and they got mixed up when jesus came the first time the church misinterprets it many times today but it's still the word of god amen romans 1 16 for i'm not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god to salvation for everyone who believes for the jew first there's an order here for everyone but for the jew first also for the greek in spite of the failures of the jewish religion it was superior to all other religions on the earth salvation was of the jews because the savior was a jew the bible was a jewish book the first ones to proclaim jesus were jewish apostles and when they first began to preach jesus said do not go into the way of the gentiles go first for the first three and a half years of the christian church they went exclusively to the lost sheep of the house of israel it wasn't until the stoning of stephen and peter had that vision on the housetop and he went to the house of cornelius then the gospel that's 3488 then they went to samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth but originally it was just supposed to go to the jews they were to get the first opportunity because they were the ones they were the children of abraham that had been called and he goes on he says the second time the hour is coming and now is when christ began preaching he said the kingdom of heaven is at hand he said the hour is now coming and now is where we're true worshipers who wants to be a true worshiper true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth god does not want external forms of religion without the internal external form is okay if you've got the internal form i mean i don't know the the thing that bothers me is when people sing a song and they're not thinking about what they're singing i mean i've done it many times you probably have too but it's supposed to be an act of praise we're supposed to be thinking about the words and glorifying god and singing just rejoicing and praising and worshiping in our hearts and when we're singing from the hymnal the words are in the hymnal that are on the screen and our you know we're thinking about the new garage project that we've got going and then that's not true worship is it or when we thank god for the food and we say the same prayer we always say and we don't even know we're saying it's completely from memory that's not really being thankful you know i'm especially thankful when i take my first bite you know what i mean when you when you're asking god to bless the food i'm especially thankful after i take my first bite so god wants us to be worshiping in spirit and in truth and he said the hour is coming now why did he say that because at that point and he says this twice he was going to die on the cross and what was going to happen to the temple when jesus died on the cross the veil was going to rhett and two high priests tore his garments that day there was a great earthquake the temple on mount garrison had already been destroyed when jesus is talking to the woman they still had an altar up there but the temple had already been destroyed jesus is saying neither on this mountain notice he doesn't say in this temple neither on this mountain or in jerusalem god is looking for us to worship him whenever we gather together in his name that's where the lord is this isn't that what jesus said where two or three gather together in my name i am there wherever the church has gathered to worship him to adore him and he wants us to do that in spirit and in truth then after he talks about true worship he was getting ready to tear down all these pagan systems with the the cross now he makes a great revelation john 4 25 and verse 26 the woman said i know that messiah is coming you know why i like this story this woman's an adventist for any visitors here today or those who are watching that was a little tongue-in-cheek statement of course we are seventh-day adventists the reason we have adventists in our name is because we believe in the coming of the lord it means those who believe in the coming of the lord any church that believes in the coming of the lord especially if you believe in the imminent coming of the lord you're an adventist and this woman is looking at jesus and she's talking about his coming the coming of the messiah so that's great i know that messiah is coming wow she was the rightest person there could be is that good english she's looking at jesus say i know messiah is coming yeah there he is right in front of her just about every other preacher has had the time wrong but she had it right i know messiah is coming who is called the christ when he comes look at this emphasis on the return of christ now she's thinking of the first coming you and i need to be telling the world about the second coming he will tell us all things and then jesus says to her what he had not said to any scribe or pharisee or priest he did not even say it plainly at first to the apostles he says to her i who speak to you am he that's an incredible statement if anyone has any doubt some people say well jesus was a good teacher and jesus never claimed to be the messiah oh yes he did i've i've had jewish rabbis and friends who say well jesus was a good teacher but it's you christians who say that he was a messiah he never said that as well yes he did jesus said i am the messiah that the jews are looking for i who speak to you and he now the apostle john is the one who makes the most of the phrase i am of course when moses said to god whom shall i say has sent me to the children of israel he said i am that i am i am the self-existent one i am and then you start going through the gospel of john jesus says before abraham was i am and the jews knew what that mean because they wanted to stone him for saying it and then he stood and he said i am the bread of life i am the door i am the good shepherd i am the living water i am the way i am the truth i am the life jesus kept saying i am god i am the self-existent one now she hears that statement right when he says to her and i wonder if he winked i who speak to you am he when he had said that right about this time the other apostles can be seen coming back from town and they're looking and they say oh yeah there's jesus he's still there but who's he talking to she sees them coming and she is so excited now i think there's more to the conversation you know sometimes the bible tells you the the the main points you can't write down the whole conversation because later when she goes into town matter of fact i want to just read it to you here after this great revelation says she walks away from her water pot now why'd she come to the well she's thirsty wanted water now jesus has given her living water christ ends up telling the disciples i've got bread you don't know about when they offer him something to eat he says i've got bread you don't know about i am so satisfied right now because i just reached a lost person and that lost person is going to go reach more lost people and that is so thrilling to me she is so thrilled now to have found jesus she has forgotten her whole mission about getting water she leaves her water pot maybe she leaves her water pot thinking i haven't given you a drink yet here you can take you can take my rope and my pot i'm gonna go tell everybody in town she cannot wait to go tell other people she leaves it she never does give him a drink but she's ready to set aside her own need to go save someone else you know jesus said i was thirsty and you gave me drink jeremiah 2 13 for my people have committed two evils they forsaken me the fountain of living water and have dug out cisterns for themselves cracked cistern since also crackpots that can hold no water a lot of people in the world don't have that living water because they're getting their water from all of these other sources that just do not satisfy second peter 2 17 these are wells without water clouds carried by a tempest for whom has reserved the blackness of darkness forever friends if you do not find the right well reserved for you is the blackness of darkness forever a lost condition wells without water so many churches and so many religions they have no living water are you thirsty this woman now has found the living water first thing she does is she goes into town she wants to run fast so she leaves her pot and she says come see you know that's another favorite term of john's is to lift up christ so the world will behold him if i am lifted up all will see when the disciples said master where are you staying jesus said come and see when philip told nathanael we found the messiah jesus of nazareth nathanael said nazareth can anything good come out of nazareth he didn't argue he said come and see and this woman knowing that she didn't have the best reputation in town for making good decisions because you're not going to believe it but you need to come and see for yourself come and see a man who told me all things ever i did and it says that she went and she she goes to the men in the town well half of them had been her husband at one time or another and she says you got to see this now the very fact that she says he told me she says it twice in this passage that he told me all things ever i did the only thing we've got recorded is that he said go call your husband but i think there was a longer conversation and he talked to her about repenting of her sins and she did she accepted that living water and uh to preserve her integrity the bible doesn't record all the dirty details we we all know what our sins are and so all we know is that jesus went to the heart of the matter come and see a man what is the first thing that follows true worship witnessing she's got to go tell somebody else she doesn't argue she doesn't debate you know the first testimony the first sermon that everybody can preach if you've been saved is i want to introduce you to someone who took away my sin and gave me peace and happiness and for me i did not start out as a pastor doing bible studies first thing i did is i just started sharing my testimony in fact for a few about a year and a half i traveled with a heritage singer and every night i just shared my testimony and when i kept studying the bible i started getting deeper and deeper into into teaching the whole word of god but all i could really tell people to begin with is what he did for me and if you've been saved it doesn't matter if you've grown up in the church you say well i never did rob banks pastor doug or i never did all these scandalous things like this woman i've kind of lived a moral life but it doesn't matter if you don't have jesus you're lost and the penalty for sin is death and when you find jesus you're saved you go from being sick to being well so some people think i've got to go out and i got to live a just a prodigal life like this woman you know and then i'll repent and then i'll be really excited and i'll tell everybody what jesus did for me now if you find the real jesus i think everyone knows we're sinners right we all know our hearts that the selfishness and sin in our hearts once she finds that she has to tell someone else come and see like isaiah after he was saved the first thing he said was here am i lord send me i remember hearing one time about when oliver cromwell was the leader of england they had a real economic crisis and they had no currency in the kingdom somehow it all ended up in spain and cromwell had his servants go search through the kingdom to see if they could find any silver or gold that they could use for currency and they came back and they said there's nothing the only silver and gold we can find it's in the statues of the saints that are in the churches and cromwell said well it's time we melt down the saints and put them into circulation i thought that's prophetic what would happen to the gospel if we melted down the saints and put them into circulation now this woman was not a pastor but when she found jesus she becomes an evangelist i don't find bible support for women pastors but i do find support for women evangelists mary magdalene she was the first one to tell about jesus rising from the dead and so she she goes and she tells everybody in the city come and see the man and as a result of that they all begin to come out now you know in this it says here you can read when jesus the disciple said aren't you hungry don't you want to eat jesus says in john 4 35 same chapter do you not say there were four months until the harvest behold i say lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they are already white for harvest jesus was so excited because here this whole community look at john 4 39 and many of the samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified he told me all that ever i did now that probably also made some of the men in the town a little nervous in john verse 4 42 then they said to the woman they came they listened they find out for themselves they heard jesus preach they said will you please stay in our town then they said to the woman now we believe not because of what you said for we ourselves have heard him and we know that indeed he is the christ the savior of the world and that wonderful through the testimony of this woman she goes into town this woman that uh and isn't it interesting jesus uses mary magdalene who had a questionable reputation and he uses this samaritan woman who had a questionable reputation and he uses the church he'll use us you know i think that's deliberate when you're born again it doesn't make sense but god can take a harlot and make her a virgin you know revelation you got two women one is the bride of christ one is the mother of harlots everybody's one of the other we're either we've had our sins washed away and we're clothed in white that woman's clothed with the sun standing on the moon crown of stars she's a glorious bride of christ mary magdalene started out revelation 17 she ended up revelation 12. this woman john chapter 4 we don't know her name starts out revelation 17. she ends up revelation 12. all of us do if we are sinners we start out impure and then through our encounter with christ he washes away our sins and though our sins be scarlet they'll be what in that living water we are made whiter than snow though they be red like crimson they will be like wool this is the gospel it's a wonderful story and not only does he save her after he saves her he uses her immediately how long do you have to wait after you're saved before god will use you god says to zacchaeus come down make haste for today i must abide at your house and he came down he received jesus joyfully and he said lord have my gifts i give to the poor and if i've taken anything by anyone from false accusation i restore him fourfold jesus then declares this is a child of abraham how long did he have to wait before his sins were washed away and he was called a child of abraham or the thief on the cross when he said lord remember me when you come into your kingdom and he said you will be with me in paradise right there from the cross he's witnessing for jesus by calling him lord and king and after god washes away isaiah's sin he says who will i send who will go for us and isaiah says here am i send me isn't it amazing after jesus cleanses that demoniac from legions of devils mark chapter five he says lord i want to go with you he says no i don't want to just ride around on the boat with you some people just want to stay in the church with the lord all the time and he says i saved you so you can go back and return to your house tell what great things god has done for you and he went and told everybody what jesus had done for him as soon as he was saved he got involved in sharing what the lord had done for him with other people friends if you found that living water you can't keep it to yourself you want to share it with other people it's the natural response of that experience now something i thought that i wanted to share with you i i touched on this last week but i'm trusting that you know something about john chapter 3 this story is a story of salvation you notice in john chapter 3 you've got nicodemus he comes at night the woman it's the middle of the day nicodemus is a man she chapter four is a woman nicodemus is a jew she is a gentile these stories are completely juxtaposed opposite against one another he is wealthy she's not he's respected she's not he's worshipping in the temple all they've got is an outdoor altar nicodemus makes an appointment her visit is totally by chance nicodemus initiates the conversation with a woman jesus initiates the conversation nicodemus you know his name the woman we still don't know her name i'm looking forward to going to heaven finding out what her name was both take the lessons that jesus gives and misunderstand it jesus says the nicodemus you need to be born again he says oh how does that happen how can you enter into your mother again and be born and obviously you know and jesus says to the woman i'm offering you living water oh how's that going to happen you have no rope in the well is deep they both seem to misunderstand the spiritual lesson that he's trying to give it tells us that jesus message can reach total opposites the religious and the people who are in the world jesus talks to the woman about water he talks to nicodemus about the spirit and then jesus said unless you're born of the water and the spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven those two stories go together they're like bookends telling us about how god saves now that woman is a type of the church she has an encounter with christ then she immediately leaves her earthly water pot because she's filled with living water she goes to town and she begins to tell everybody what jesus has done for her this is the mission of the church we're called to be witnesses she receives the living water you know she didn't go back to town with her pot of water because she's got living water she goes back to town she starts telling everybody i've found living water and she does it at the risk of great opposition because she's telling samaritans it is a jewish messiah who says that salvation is of the jews that was not popular she says don't argue with me you go meet him for yourself and you know this i think is a wonderful illustration of how we share the gospel this is uh basically you would say it's like the steps of evangelism or witnessing noticing what the lord does this how the lord does this here um it's a model for evangelism just got to find it in my notes first jesus goes to a foreign country he makes his trip to samaria you know the bible says go ye into all the world if you're waiting to witness because you think everybody's going to fall through your front door you may not be a very good witness sometimes you got to go jesus goes to where she is he then initiates conversation sometimes people are you know talkative and they'll initiate a conversation but we've got even if you're timid you've got to learn how to say can i have a drink i mean start engage people he asks for favor he finds something that's a great entering wedge to begin a dialogue by the way you've probably heard this before when you're talking to people we teach this in our afco class they've got something called fort f-o-r-t and just a guideline when you're talking to people you might ask about for family is the f o occupation you know you have to adjust it if there's no pictures on the wall you may not ask about family occupation then religion and then t testimony share your testimony then you might add invite them to make a decision but so you say all right i started a conversation where do i go most of us know just how to have polite conversation something else he treats her as an equal doesn't talk down to her you're not supposed to talk to us we're lowly samaritans there's no racism among god's people for as many of you as we're baptized into christ have put on christ there is neither jew nor greek there is neither slave nor free there is neither male or female you are all one in christ he addresses their practical needs and ties it into their spiritual needs he says she's coming for water he says i can offer you living water so find out what their practical interests are and then bring it into a spiritual interest if they like racing cars say you know the bible talks about racing yeah you run that race and you get that crown and i mean god will give you the holy spirit and guide you in these things and then he extends to her a call to an invitation to ask and to repent and that go call your husband and um he invites her then to accept him as the messiah he reveals who he is so this is a wonderful explanation of uh the uh outline of salvation in this in the bible story so we worship god we worship him in spirit and in truth we have a wonderful model for evangelism here and for witnessing jesus then makes this great revelation he explains he's the messiah and we want to share the living water with people now there's two kinds of people listening here maybe through media right now some of you are dry you don't have the living water the starting point is jesus is saying ask he is as anxious to give you that living water today it doesn't matter how many husbands you've had what your sins are how many wives you've had it doesn't matter how far you've gone jesus said that he came into the world to save sinners if you're a sinner you qualify he came to seek and to save the lost if you're lost you qualify he says you ask you come to him helpless she came to him alone and we all come personally to jesus and we ask and say lord give me that living water he wants to give you that living water and he'll do that today and you can ask him for that right now then he wants you to share the living water and we've got a couple of issues we've got a lot of people who thankful for the living water but we're not sharing it you realize if you do not share it it gets stagnant in your own heart it needs to flow out to stay fresh i remember hearing a remarkable story during the civil war in 1862 i think it was it was the battle of fredericksburg and there was a sergeant young man 19 years old but he was a sergeant richard kirkland and in this terrible battle i mean the the general on the field there at fredericksburg the the union general he gave some terrible orders i mean it's hard to imagine how they fought back then but here the confederate soldiers had the heights it was called mary's heights on this hill and there were thousands of them up there behind the stone wall and you if you got the high ground you got the advantage and the union general you know the union soldiers lost almost all of their battles until they finally got general grant on board they were losing one battle after another to the confederates to the south and the general sent all his men he said take the hill and so they all went charging up the hill and one after the other the confederate soldiers were just they would reload and fire down and they were just piling up the soldiers thousands and thousands died in this battle on this big field between the two armies the sun went down and those among the wounded who were mobile would stagger off the field they called them the walking wounded or they would crawl off the field back to their lines but so many of them were wounded and they couldn't get away and it was december it's cold but they're still very thirsty do you know that more soldiers died in the civil war than any other battle in american history more of those soldiers died from disease than from bullets they say that a penicillin had been discovered about 50 years sooner it would have cut a lot of the deaths in the civil war of those who died from disease most of it was from bad water they didn't know how to carry large amounts of water for an army back then and they didn't have tanker trucks all they had was these little canteens they had to hope that they would hike by a clean stream and the problem was all these armies were moving and they were often drinking out of puddles that all of the horses had just marched through and so dysentery just swept through the ranks of the north and south and they just they struggled so on the battlefield that night they just heard all these soldiers calling out water water water help and thousands of them kirkland couldn't stand it anymore and he went to the brigadier general kershaw and he said you've got to let me go out there and give some water to the men he said well those are union soldiers most of them they got shot in front of our stone wall their unions he said i know but they're closer to us than their own troops their own troops aren't going to come because they're afraid we're going to shoot these men are in absolute agony said let me bring him some water he says you're going to get shot right away he said i'm willing to risk dying he's i can't stand to hear him cry anymore is it okay kirkland said can we hoist a white flag while i do it he said absolutely not they'll think we're surrendering he said can i wear a white handkerchief he said no he said he'll be misunderstood so he went and he collected canteens from the other confederate soldiers that felt sorry for their troops you realize in the civil war sometimes brothers fought on opposite sides and it might be own brother on the other side of the wall crying because he shot so he went they had a clean creek nearby the confederate soldiers he went and filled all these canteens with a clean creek and in broad daylight he hiked over the wall by himself and sure enough a few of the union soldiers began to fire at him but it was far enough away where they missed and then they realized what he was doing he was one by one going to the wounded soldiers and giving them water propping them up it was very cold matter of fact during this battle they said some of the soldiers they couldn't get away in the morning because the blood from their wounds had frozen them to the ground so some of them fro were dying of uh cold and that was just a terrible terrible situation but he one by one he went and he's giving them water and um covering them and trying to take care of him and pretty soon cheers went up from the union soldiers tears went up from the confederates and they called him the angel of mary's heights because he cared about giving water to those that were thirsty well he did it for an hour and a half out there in the what you call no man's land supplying that living water trying to keep those men alive and keep them warm then when he had taken care of every man that was alive that he could reach he went back and resumed his post as a confederate soldier died in battle he went to most of the major battles he died in battle a year later they got several statues that they've made of kirkland and paintings because of his sacrifice willing to die to bring somebody else water and this is what jesus did he came into the world and he died to give us living water and he's offering it freely the bible ends by saying whoever thirsts let him come and take the water of life freely how many of you want to say lord i want to drink i want that living water how many of you are willing to say lord and i want to share that living water with others i want it to not just go in me i want it to go through me this is the story of the woman at the well jesus gave her living water and then she began to spread the gospel among the gentiles in that very spot we're going to sing about that accepting that living water and taking it to the loss i'd like to invite our singers to come out we're going to sing our closing hymn

Channel: 11:11 Ministries

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Length: 64min 33sec (3873 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 23 2021