He had to Go Through Samaria

Jn 4:4-15

Every Day he looked out the church office window at a park. It should have been a nice pleasant sight, but more often than not it disgusted him. Much of his disgust came from the fact that park was a favorite meeting place of the gay community of Dallas. They would openly be affectionate with each other, flaunting their lifestyle to anyone who passed by. Yet there was another side of what happened at this park. There were a lot of sick and dying people there. Mostly men, mostly dying from aids. The minister began to realize that the church needed to do something about the gays in the park, so some the church leaders met and began a plan to do something. They organized a ministry to care for the sick men and showing them the love of Christ. Some of those men saw something new from Christians. Instead of hate and disgust, they saw the love of Christ. Some of them gave their lives to Christ and became Christians.

So why tell this story? Because it is a modern day parallel to the our text. What this minister did for the gay people in the park, Jesus did for the Samaritan woman and her town in our text. God calls us to go beyond our bias and share the gospel even with people we wouldn’t normally want to deal with. That is a challenge; a real challenge.

PRAYER

I. He Had to Go Through Samaria

A. this phrase is deeper than you think

1. Most Jews would take a route that went around the country of Samaria adding about 3 days to their journey.

2. What was happening in Galilee that Jesus needed to be there 3 days quicker?

a) Nothing we know of.

b) There wasn’t anything that seems time driven that we read about in scripture.

c) So Jesus need to go through Samaria must have a deeper meaning.

B. Jews and Samaritans hated each other

1. The Jews hated the Samaritans because they mingled the pure Jewish blood with heathens when they married gentiles brought in by the Assyrians to repopulate the people taken into slavery.

2. Furthermore they were heretics who deserted the one true God for the gods of these Gentiles.

3. Even when they returned to Jehovah, they only accepted the first 5 books of Moses and wouldn’t go to the temple in Jerusalem to worship.

4. The Samaritans hated the Jews because they were rebuffed when they offered to help rebuild the Temple in 400 BC.

5. They built their own temple and in 126 BC the Jews came and burned it down.

6. The feelings of hate were very mutual between the two countries.

C. Unlike most Jews, Jesus knew that everyone deserved to hear the good news of God’s love.

1. He knew that they hungered for something better than what they had religiously.

2. He knew they were fairly ignorant of the promises of God made to their forefathers before the great deportation.

3. He knew that they needed the saving grace of God

4. He had to go through Samaria, not because of time but because of love.

II. The Woman at the Well

A. She was an outcast even among her own people

1. Vs 6 tells us Jesus was there around the 6^th hour.

2. That is noon our time.

3. The hottest time of the day.

4. Now think of yourself living in the dessert. Would you want to go get some water at the hottest time of the day?

5. Drawing water was a social time for the women and they would gather early in the morning and early evening to draw water.

6. This woman was by herself in the hottest time of the day. That shouts outcast.

B. Jesus offers her living water.

1. Jesus asks this woman for something to drink.

2. That alone had to shock her senses beyond belief.

a) Jews don’t talk to Samaritans

b) Men don’t talk to women

c) She knew that Jesus knew she was a social outcast

d) and yet he asks her for something to drink.

e) by the way, we never do read of him getting that drink of water

3. It takes her a while to understand what Jesus is offering.

a) Her first thought was that she didn’t have to be humiliated by coming to the well every day, knowing how the women would be talking about her or coldly ignoring her.

b) Besides he didn’t have anything to draw this special water from the well with.

4. then he offers her eternal life with that living water

a) God’s grace is so great it can even save an outcast Samaritan woman.

b) To her that is inconceivable.

c) For many of us, we look at our lives and think just as she did.

d) On the island of Trinidad is a crater in an extinct volcano which is completely filled with pitch. Its surface is firm enough for people to walk on, although gas escapes from below, forming bubbles here and there. For several decades huge loads of asphalt have been dug from this tar-like lake and shipped to all parts of the world for use in paving roads. No matter how large a hole is made in the pitch, it doesn't remain more than 72 hours because it fills up from below. Shiploads of asphalt have been taken out of this crater from almost 75 years, yet it never runs empty. Drillings reveal that this black, gum-like substance is still found at a depth of 280 feet. The supply seems to be constant and endless.

e) That is an idea of what God’s grace is like.

f) There isn’t a limited supply reserved for only the best of society,

g) There is enough to cover any sinner willing to come and drink of the living water.

III. The Village

A. The woman tells others about the Messiah

1. It’s is so amazing to me that almost everyone who comes in contact with the Christ, can’t keep it to themselves; they have to tell others.

2. Whether they met him in person or through the gospel being taught to them, they shared the Messiah with others.

3. Why doesn’t that happen as much today?

4. Are we less convicted?

5. Do we downplay Christ when teaching the lost?

6. Those would be good questions to find answers to.

B. They didn’t all believe for the same reasons

1. Some believed because the woman told them that Jesus knew everything she had done.

2. Some believed believe because of what he had to say to them.

3. What a wonderful understanding of evangelism vs 42 shows

a) There will be people who become to Christ simply because they find some friendships in a church or because of a particular person who shared the gospel with them.

b) Then, some day, it hits them that they no longer believe in Christ because of a person, but because they have heard for themselves.

c) It seems this is so true in our society today.

d) People often become Christians or join a church for many other reasons than the most important one.

e) But someday, it finally sinks in and the programs don’t matter, the friends don’t matter, the facilities don’t matter, they have heard the savior and now understand he really is the savior of the world.

IV. Let’s Understand Our Role

A. The disciples didn’t know their role until Jesus pointed it out to them in vs. 34-36

B. Our role is to get the message out to the lost.

1. How they respond is between them and God.

2. Why they respond is between them and God.

3. When their faith becomes their own is between them and God.

4. Our job is to be the reapers.

a) There is a harvest of lost souls out there.

b) Someone needs to bring in the sheaves.

c) How we do that is up to us.

d) Some may use tried and true methods.

e) Some may use new innovative methods.

f) Some may have no experience but their own experience, but are willing to wade in and get to work.

g) All that is fine with God as long as we reap.

C. Are you ready to start reaping the harvest?