MOTIVATE

Have you ever been wounded?

• ….
• External wounds can heal… but internal wounds hide and remain hurt, and while can heal through counseling and prayer, often become defining trauma)
  • Abandonment leaving you unprotected and unprovided
  • Betrayal that shocks and saddens you boundless resentment
  • Conniving and intentional manipulating others to befriend you
  • Dark suffering and deathly grief that define significant seasons of life

Today’s passage exposes how Jesus relates to those who have been deeply wounded.

EXAMINE     Who Knows Everything About You and Still Loves You (John 4)

Jesus is on a mission to mend the brokenhearted.

Jesus had to pass through Samaria

• Geography affirms this but… History contrasts this.
  • Israel was a divided kingdom (931 BC split / 722BC invaded by Assyria). Many intermarried with Gentiles. Samaritans became political rebels, religiously unclean, and racially divided. About 400BC, Samaritans built a rival temple on Mt Gerizim.
  • Jews would travel extra 6-days to not enter Samaria.
  • Spiritually reflects Jesus’ urgency for mission with “had to”  
• What is your “have to” from God?  

It was about the sixth hour. ⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water.

• Why was this woman drawing water at noon – the heat of the day?
  • BC she was a woman burdened by past and broken by present relationships of those who were likely relentless at their condemnation. So, instead of going in cool of AM/PM w/ others, she goes when no one else will be present to avoid shaming accusations.
    • Sadly, there are places of unfair judgment.
      • Biblical judgment aims for accountability for growth in God’s truth and grace.
      • Unbiblical judgment aims for accusation to shame and condemn.

Biblical judgment aims for accountability for growth in God’s truth and grace.
Unbiblical judgment aims for accusation to shame and condemn.

• What sixth hour are you avoiding?
  *Time at home so you spend time scrolling/screen
  *Time alone so we fill the void with
  *Time at church, so you blame other Christians as judgmental rather than face accountability… The “you’re judging me” people sure sound judgmental. 

Jesus is on a mission to cross boundaries.

• John 3 Jesus encounter is a contrast with John 4.
  • Nicodemus named male vs Samaritan unnamed female
• • Nic was hyper-religious vs Sammy feigned religious
• • Nic had status & wealth vs Sammy is low status
• • Nic was a Jew vs a Samaritan woman
  • Yet, Jesus still gives both equal attention and compassion
    
• *Believing the gospel means becoming friends with people who need it. Christians are to facilitate strangers becoming siblings in God’s family.
• > What boundaries are you crossing to bring others in God’s kingdom?

Believing the gospel means becoming friends with people who need it. Christians are to facilitate strangers becoming siblings in God’s family.

Tweet

Jesus is on a mission to dig deeper wells.

Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink. 

• Jesus is asking for physical water.
• What is in your hand that Jesus is asking you to give?

¹⁰ “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Jesus wants Sammy to ask him for spiritual water. Jesus has more blessing and joy to give us, if we ask.
 

¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?  

• Sammy lives in homes & communities. She wakes up thirsty each day, but she’s going to the wrong well to satisfy her thirst. Maybe you are Sammy…
  • Today’s wells:
    • well of more (lust of eyes) thinking newer/brighter will bring contentment
      – from phones to furniture to vehicles and houses
      merry-go-round of futility
  • • well of comfort (lust of flesh) thinking ease & escape will bring happiness
      – from food to trips to substance abuse
      cul-de-sac of dead ends
    • well of success (pride of life) thinking harder/smarter will bring fulfillment  
      – from gym to sports to academics to career accomplishments
      ladder of doom

Which describes your life: the merry-go-round of futility, the cul-de-sac of dead ends, or the ladder of doom?

¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

• Sammy unknowingly compares to Jacob.   
  • A deceiver… that eventually was transformed by a wound.
  • ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

IOW: We dig wells that lead to drink to temporary pleasure but end up with problems and pain.
And just like Jacob, God wounds us to prune us from self-reliance.
Jesus offers a different way and deeper well that overflows with satisfying grace and inexhaustible joy.

God wounds us to prune us from self-reliance.

Tweet

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

• She’s thinks she’s ready to accept Jesus. She likes idea of grace and joy.
• But she doesn’t understand that grace isn’t cheap. It requires confession.
• Likewise, we cannot have resurrection joy without cross-bearing that leads to death of self.

*And church, notice that she’s ready to get baptized and become a church member – but Jesus puts on the brakes!  

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” She answered, “I have no husband,” but Jesus says, “You have had five husbands, and the man you’re with now is not your husband!”

IOW Sammy thought she could hide but Jesus is letting her know that she will never experience satisfying grace and inexhaustible joy until she is willing to step into the light.

• Go get your _____  [husband]. What is the thing holding you back from stepping into the light and becoming fully known by God?; because you cannot be wholly healed and fully forgiven and free until you’re willing to be vulnerable before God.

¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain

• And right when she’s confronted, she wants to change the subject.
  • People do this all the time and become creatively hypothetical…
    Age of earth?              Dinosaurs?              Why war in OT?
    Can we really trust the Bible? Did Jesus really do miracles?
    Why do Christians hate everyone?             What about other religions?
    When is the book of REV gonna become true – is the end close?
  • These are all good questions and worthy of discussion, but often people use them as smokescreens for avoiding being honest and accountable to God.
  • If we try to navigate life alone and fight hardships in the dark, we will always end up wounded. But Jesus is revealing to her that our life is not defined by our wounds but His.

You cannot be wholly healed and fully forgiven until you’re willing to be vulnerable with God.

Tweet

If we try to navigate life alone and fight hardships in the dark, we will always end up wounded. Jesus reveals to us that our life is not defined by our wounds, but His.

Tweet

 ²¹ Jesus replies, “Woman believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… ²³ the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” 

• Jesus gives her dignity and doesn’t treat her as inferior, but more like incomplete. He explains that worship is not about place – or even a performance with specific music; but instead it’s about your posture towards the Father.
• Essentially, every circumstance of our life is an issue of worship. The opposite of Christianity is not atheism but idolatry – not “do we worship, but who/what we worship?!?!
• God wants us to worship what is fitting not the world’s counterfeit. Worshiping God is not about our preferred mountains, but God moving mountains to die for our selfish pride, so that we can be made new and resurrected into the image of Jesus.

APPLY/TAKEAWAY

• Sammy’s testimony from John 4:39-42 ²⁸ She left her water jar and went into town saying, “Come see a man who told me all that I ever did – [and still loves me.]”^{… … 39} Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

⁴¹ And many more believed because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman,
“It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Jesus knew Sammy’s sin and instead of being repulsed, He related to her with grace and truth. Jesus didn’t soften adultery or skip addressing sin. Instead, He heightened her understanding of self-worth and divine purpose.

Many religious people do the opposite. We say: “If you stop sinning, then I’ll accept you.” But Jesus says, “I accept you, so stop sinning.” Jesus teaches that we cannot correct our behaviors or change our heart; only grace can do that. Tim Keller said, “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”