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Sermon of the Week
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27/2/05

The Woman at the Well John 4:4-42

Well, I'm sure you've all heard a sermon on the woman at the well a number of times. I think I've probably preached on it here at least twice before, so what I want to do today is not to look at all the features of the story, but just two or three important things that come out that might be relevant to us.

The story begins with Jesus on his way to Galilee. He comes to a town called Sychar and decides to stop for a rest. He sits down for a rest beside a well. He's probably wishing he had a bucket so he could draw some water to drink. The disciples have gone off into this Samaritan village to buy some food and then a woman arrives in the normal course of her day to fetch water. In other words, this is an everyday encounter.

   There are problems though - the woman comes in the heat of the day - could there be some reason why she doesn't come in the evening with the other women?

   In any case she's a Samaritan woman and Jesus is a Jewish man. They should, by all rights, ignore each other.

   But what does Jesus do? He starts up a conversation. And there are couple of things about the way he does it. First of all he begins at a very down to earth, pragmatic level. "Give me a drink." There's nothing intimidating or threatening about the way he begins. In fact it's a very natural conversation starter isn't it?

   What's more, although he knows something about her, as we discover later in the conversation, he doesn't treat her as someone who might be despised by an upright Jew. In fact he puts her in a position of power relative to him doesn't he? He's asking her for a favour.

   But he's doing more than that. He's taking the opportunity that God has given him to make a connection with this woman so he can tell her the gospel. Do you remember when we looked at the first of our series on the sermon on the mount where Jesus told us we were salt and light, how I said that if we're to be salt in the world, then we need to season our conversations with salt. That is, our everyday conversations. Even ones as prosaic as asking someone for a drink. Because that's what Jesus does here. He takes an ordinary situation, an ordinary conversation and he turns it around to a conversation about eternal life. And the conversation is with a very ordinary woman, someone you would never pick as a potential convert, let alone an evangelist herself. Yet that's what she becomes.

   Well, Jesus begins the conversation with a request for a drink of water, but he quickly moves on from his material needs to her spiritual needs. Now I don't know if he's thought this out beforehand. It's the sort of thing that a modern day school of evangelism would probably school us in. Or if the request for water just triggers an idea in his mind. Mind you it's an idea that springs from his knowledge of the Old Testament. Our Old Testament reading today recalls the time during the exodus when God provided living water for his people in the middle of the desert. But there are other examples. In Jer 2, God accuses his people of two things. He says: "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water." But then as the prophecies of salvation appear we get the other side: of God promising to give them living water again. Ezekiel's great vision of the temple in Ezek 40-47 ends with a vision of a great river of water flowing from the door of the temple and bringing life to the desert and even the dead sea. In Zech 14:8 we find: "On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter." In Is 1:16-18 water is promised as cleansing from sin: "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, ¹⁷learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. ¹⁸Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." Again, in Is 12:3 we find the promise of life and salvation expressed in terms of water (NRSV): "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." Or Is 49:10 (NRSV): "they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them."

   Finally, who could hear these words without being reminded of the words of Is 55: (Isa 55:1-7 NRSV) "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. ... Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David."

   So it's a natural connection for Jesus to make between this well of still water and the living water that God provides to those who ask it of him. Well, surprise, surprise, the woman hears and responds. Far from being a lost cause, or infertile ground, she wants what Jesus is offering. She may not quite understand it but she knows this is something important that she needs.

   But it isn't quite that simple is it? The gospel is a message of grace, of free salvation, but it's never cheap grace. It always involves a recognition of our true state before God. So Jesus tells the woman to go and call her husband. He knows what her answer will be. He's already discerned her true situation. But he needs her to acknowledge her standing before God so she can ask for forgiveness.

   And how does she respond? Well, she tries to change the subject doesn't she? She throws in your classic red herring. "That's OK for you but we Samaritans believe different things from you Jews." She tries to divert the conversation away from the uncomfortable truth of her own history to the much safer ground of the history of the Jews and the Samaritans.

   Well here's a good lesson for us. Don't be diverted. Don't be put off when someone tries to change the subject because it's getting a bit close to the bone. Don't think it's polite to let the subject drop if they get uncomfortable. This is a matter of life and death. This woman can go on relying on the dead water of her Samaritan traditions or she can drink of the living water of the gospel. So Jesus pushes a bit harder. He says "Let's not argue about how we worship in this world. A time's coming when true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth. In fact that's the only way to worship him. So you'd better get on board now, while you have the chance."

   And then we have the wonderful moment when the penny drops. She realises that this man is something special. In fact She says he reminds her of the one who was promised, the Messiah. "Yes," says Jesus, "You've picked it. I am he."

   Isn't it amazing how God can take someone who's obviously lived a fairly disreputable life and completely turn them around? We had a guy who spoke at a men's dinner last year who was like that. An armed robber, a drug addict, a total disappointment to his family. Yet in prison he discovered the gospel. He became a Christian. And then, like this woman he couldn't help but tell others about Jesus.

   She races off to the village, so excited that she forgets she's a social outcast and begins to tell everyone about what's happened. "Could this be the Messiah?" she asks. And the whole village follow her out to where Jesus is waiting with his disciples who have returned by now with lunch.

   Finally, notice that Jesus spends the time, while he's waiting, encouraging his disciples to have confidence in the gospel. He says "Just look around. The fields are white for harvest." What he's done isn't anything outstanding or unusual. He's just shared the gospel with someone who's thirsty for the news that God is at work in the world, bringing salvation to lost people. The picture is of a field where the fruit is almost falling of the trees, where the wheat is standing up tall ready to be cut. In other words there's no magic formula needed to harvest. You just need to share the gospel with people as this disreputable Samaritan woman does. And the result: "Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I have ever done.'"

   We actually see two ways in this passage that we can help people to receive the gospel. We can use our conversations to lead them to the truth. We can season our words with salt. Like Jesus we can shape our conversations to take pictures we have from the pages of the bible and share them with people we talk to. Or we can do what the Samaritan woman did. We can tell people what Jesus has done for us and then we can bring them to someone who can tell them more. Or perhaps we might even point them to the words of Scripture itself so they can read for themselves the things God has given us to teach us about him.

   Let me encourage you, either way, to have your eyes open for opportunities in your everyday life to share the gospel with people, to offer them living water, so they too can worship God in spirit and in truth.

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	Sermon of the Week	Look up the passage
	27/2/05
	The Woman at the Well	John 4:4-42

	Well, I'm sure you've all heard a sermon on the woman at the well a number of times. I think I've probably preached on it here at least twice before, so what I want to do today is not to look at all the features of the story, but just two or three important things that come out that might be relevant to us.
	The story begins with Jesus on his way to Galilee. He comes to a town called Sychar and decides to stop for a rest. He sits down for a rest beside a well. He's probably wishing he had a bucket so he could draw some water to drink. The disciples have gone off into this Samaritan village to buy some food and then a woman arrives in the normal course of her day to fetch water. In other words, this is an everyday encounter.
	There are problems though - the woman comes in the heat of the day - could there be some reason why she doesn't come in the evening with the other women?
	In any case she's a Samaritan woman and Jesus is a Jewish man. They should, by all rights, ignore each other.
	But what does Jesus do? He starts up a conversation. And there are couple of things about the way he does it. First of all he begins at a very down to earth, pragmatic level. "Give me a drink." There's nothing intimidating or threatening about the way he begins. In fact it's a very natural conversation starter isn't it?
	What's more, although he knows something about her, as we discover later in the conversation, he doesn't treat her as someone who might be despised by an upright Jew. In fact he puts her in a position of power relative to him doesn't he? He's asking her for a favour.
	But he's doing more than that. He's taking the opportunity that God has given him to make a connection with this woman so he can tell her the gospel. Do you remember when we looked at the first of our series on the sermon on the mount where Jesus told us we were salt and light, how I said that if we're to be salt in the world, then we need to season our conversations with salt. That is, our everyday conversations. Even ones as prosaic as asking someone for a drink. Because that's what Jesus does here. He takes an ordinary situation, an ordinary conversation and he turns it around to a conversation about eternal life. And the conversation is with a very ordinary woman, someone you would never pick as a potential convert, let alone an evangelist herself. Yet that's what she becomes.
	Well, Jesus begins the conversation with a request for a drink of water, but he quickly moves on from his material needs to her spiritual needs. Now I don't know if he's thought this out beforehand. It's the sort of thing that a modern day school of evangelism would probably school us in. Or if the request for water just triggers an idea in his mind. Mind you it's an idea that springs from his knowledge of the Old Testament. Our Old Testament reading today recalls the time during the exodus when God provided living water for his people in the middle of the desert. But there are other examples. In Jer 2, God accuses his people of two things. He says: "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water." But then as the prophecies of salvation appear we get the other side: of God promising to give them living water again. Ezekiel's great vision of the temple in Ezek 40-47 ends with a vision of a great river of water flowing from the door of the temple and bringing life to the desert and even the dead sea. In Zech 14:8 we find: "On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter." In Is 1:16-18 water is promised as cleansing from sin: "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, ¹⁷learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. ¹⁸Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." Again, in Is 12:3 we find the promise of life and salvation expressed in terms of water (NRSV): "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." Or Is 49:10 (NRSV): "they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them."
	Finally, who could hear these words without being reminded of the words of Is 55: (Isa 55:1-7 NRSV) "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. ... Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David."
	So it's a natural connection for Jesus to make between this well of still water and the living water that God provides to those who ask it of him. Well, surprise, surprise, the woman hears and responds. Far from being a lost cause, or infertile ground, she wants what Jesus is offering. She may not quite understand it but she knows this is something important that she needs.
	But it isn't quite that simple is it? The gospel is a message of grace, of free salvation, but it's never cheap grace. It always involves a recognition of our true state before God. So Jesus tells the woman to go and call her husband. He knows what her answer will be. He's already discerned her true situation. But he needs her to acknowledge her standing before God so she can ask for forgiveness.
	And how does she respond? Well, she tries to change the subject doesn't she? She throws in your classic red herring. "That's OK for you but we Samaritans believe different things from you Jews." She tries to divert the conversation away from the uncomfortable truth of her own history to the much safer ground of the history of the Jews and the Samaritans.
	Well here's a good lesson for us. Don't be diverted. Don't be put off when someone tries to change the subject because it's getting a bit close to the bone. Don't think it's polite to let the subject drop if they get uncomfortable. This is a matter of life and death. This woman can go on relying on the dead water of her Samaritan traditions or she can drink of the living water of the gospel. So Jesus pushes a bit harder. He says "Let's not argue about how we worship in this world. A time's coming when true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth. In fact that's the only way to worship him. So you'd better get on board now, while you have the chance."
	And then we have the wonderful moment when the penny drops. She realises that this man is something special. In fact She says he reminds her of the one who was promised, the Messiah. "Yes," says Jesus, "You've picked it. I am he."
	Isn't it amazing how God can take someone who's obviously lived a fairly disreputable life and completely turn them around? We had a guy who spoke at a men's dinner last year who was like that. An armed robber, a drug addict, a total disappointment to his family. Yet in prison he discovered the gospel. He became a Christian. And then, like this woman he couldn't help but tell others about Jesus.
	She races off to the village, so excited that she forgets she's a social outcast and begins to tell everyone about what's happened. "Could this be the Messiah?" she asks. And the whole village follow her out to where Jesus is waiting with his disciples who have returned by now with lunch.
	Finally, notice that Jesus spends the time, while he's waiting, encouraging his disciples to have confidence in the gospel. He says "Just look around. The fields are white for harvest." What he's done isn't anything outstanding or unusual. He's just shared the gospel with someone who's thirsty for the news that God is at work in the world, bringing salvation to lost people. The picture is of a field where the fruit is almost falling of the trees, where the wheat is standing up tall ready to be cut. In other words there's no magic formula needed to harvest. You just need to share the gospel with people as this disreputable Samaritan woman does. And the result: "Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I have ever done.'"
	We actually see two ways in this passage that we can help people to receive the gospel. We can use our conversations to lead them to the truth. We can season our words with salt. Like Jesus we can shape our conversations to take pictures we have from the pages of the bible and share them with people we talk to. Or we can do what the Samaritan woman did. We can tell people what Jesus has done for us and then we can bring them to someone who can tell them more. Or perhaps we might even point them to the words of Scripture itself so they can read for themselves the things God has given us to teach us about him.
	Let me encourage you, either way, to have your eyes open for opportunities in your everyday life to share the gospel with people, to offer them living water, so they too can worship God in spirit and in truth.