Lars Larson Live Stream

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And please be seated. Let's turn in our
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Bibles please to the fourth chapter of John today. We might be here a few weeks.
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John chapter 4. We arrive here in our study of this gospel.
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This is one of my favorite accounts or stories in the four gospels. It records our
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Savior going outside of the realm of Judaism to reach Samaritans with the gospel.
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We read of our Lord Jesus interacting with a fallen woman, a woman who had ruined her reputation and had been living a very sad and it would seem lonely existence.
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I'm surmising that. This woman to whom our Lord imparted the promise and hope of new life before her.
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That is, if she embraced Him in faith as her Lord and Savior, and it is apparent that she did. And so in this episode we are instructed in the nature of true worship before God.
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I think that's one of the highlights of this chapter before us. And there are also principles that we'll be able to point out,
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I believe, here in John chapter 4 that direct us in our service to our
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Lord before others and to others. And we'll see a few of those today,
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I believe. My own philosophy of ministry and understanding of the nature and form of corporate worship is largely drawn from what our
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Lord taught this woman here in John chapter 4. It's a rather long account.
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It actually runs beginning with verse 1 all the way through verse 42. We'll be here a few weeks.
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I think we get through verse 10 today, Lord willing. But we'll break the account into smaller units for our spiritual consideration and digestion.
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And so we'll begin by reading John chapter 4 verses 1 through 26. Therefore, when the
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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, he left
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Judea and departed again to Galilee. But he needed to go through Samaria.
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So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son
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Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well.
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It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
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Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
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And then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a
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Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
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And Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked of him.
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And he would have given you living water. The woman said to him,
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Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water?
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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?
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Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.
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But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
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The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.
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Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman answered and said,
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I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You've well said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.
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In that you spoke truly. And the woman said to him,
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Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you
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Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her,
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Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the
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Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the
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Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the
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Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship him.
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God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
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The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ, and when he comes he will tell us all things.
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Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. And again the episode continues, but we'll stop there today.
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There are those commentators who have organized the contents of John's gospel according to seven signs that are recorded, as well as seven major discourses or speeches of Jesus.
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We consider the first sign when Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, and the second sign we'll find recorded later at the end of this chapter,
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John chapter 4, when Jesus heals a nobleman's son. With regard to the discourses of Jesus, we consider the first discourse in John chapter 3, when
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Jesus engaged Nicodemus regarding the new birth. And before us here in John chapter 4 is the second discourse of Jesus, recorded in John's gospel, in which he emphasizes the water of life.
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The new birth, and now the water of life. Now again we read verses 1 through 26, but it's part of a larger context, the episode or pericope actually begins with verse 1 and continues through verse 42.
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And if we were to stand back and look at this larger episode, we have an outline, rather broad, but here it is,
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Jesus arrived in Samaria, verses 1 through 6, and then beginning with verse 7 through 26,
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Jesus met and engaged a Samaritan woman in conversation. 27 through 38,
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Jesus instructed his disciples of the great evangelistic opportunities before them, the fields are white on the harvest.
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And then in verses 39 through 42, the faith placed in Jesus by the
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Samaritans. The whole city believed on Jesus, not just because of the witness of the woman, but because they came out and heard
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Jesus and saw Jesus themselves. Wonderful episode. And so let's consider
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Jesus arrived in Samaria in verses 1 through 6, and there's a number of details here that we have to sort through.
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We read in verses 1 through 3, Jesus left Judea for Galilee when Jesus learned what the
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Pharisees had heard regarding him. Therefore, 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, he left
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Judea and departed again to Galilee. The ministry of John the
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Baptist had continued even while the ministry of the Lord Jesus had begun and was expanding.
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They were both baptizing disciples. Same kind of baptism, the baptism of repentance with view to the impending inauguration of the kingdom of God.
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And John's ministry apparently did not diminish. Jesus' ministry increased and became even broader and greater than John's ministry.
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But the time came when our Lord's ministry became more prominent than John's and it apparently came to the notice of the
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Pharisees. And so we read that Jesus, when he learned of this, he and his disciples left for the north country, which was
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Galilee, which was about 90 miles north of Jerusalem in Judea.
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Here we see, therefore, the Pharisees were a major threat to Jesus at this stage of his ministry.
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We read in John chapter 1 of certain elders from Jerusalem coming and then certain of the
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Pharisees among them confronted Jesus. And here we read again of the
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Pharisees. And so perhaps had Jesus remained in Judea at this time, perhaps conflict would have precipitated hostile actions toward him before the time which was in God's purpose.
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There's that expression he continually uses, my hour is not yet. Here we see there are times when it may be advisable for Christians to take action and to avoid evil that others would perpetrate upon them.
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There's a time to stand and fight and there's a time to run. And in the purposes of God, our
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Lord Jesus left for Galilee. David had fled from the presence of King Saul on more than one occasion.
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The Apostle Paul escaped the enemies of the gospel who were seeking him in Damascus. They let him down over the wall in a basket.
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He made his way back to Tarsus. And here our Lord departed Judea for Galilee when he heard that the
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Pharisees were beginning to regard him and his ministry as a greater threat to them than that of John and his ministry.
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We read in verse 3, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee. We've already discussed that John's gospel records a number of journeys of Jesus from Judea to Galilee.
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Whereas the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, primarily locate Jesus' ministry in Galilee, John's gospel records his ministry in Judea and Galilee, but actually more in Judea than Galilee.
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In fact, there's an early church father at some time, I think in the later second century, he described
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John's gospel as having been written intentionally and purposely to give details that were not in the synoptic gospels.
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And I think there's some validity to that. That was probably one of the motivations, humanly speaking, that John had to record what was not recorded elsewhere.
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This is the second occasion that Jesus left Judea for Galilee. We already read of one back in chapter 1.
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We then read in verse 4, but he needed to go through Samaria. If you were to look at a map of Palestine of the early first century, you would see that the region of Samaria lie right between Galilee in the north and Judea in the south.
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Samaria was right between them. And so to travel directly from Judea to Galilee or Galilee to Judea, you'd have to go through Samaria, and that's expressed here.
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He needed to go through Samaria. And Josephus, the Jewish Roman historian who lived in the first century, declared that this was the shortest and quickest route and the preferred route of people in Galilee when they had to travel to Jerusalem.
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They would have to go through Samaria. They didn't like it, but that is the common way that they went.
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And so one might assume that this is the logical explanation of verse 4.
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He needed to go through Samaria. However, although geographically it might be true, that does not fully account for what's written in verse 4 in my opinion.
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First, it was not all that unusual for Jews to purposely travel the longer and more difficult route through the
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Transjordan. In other words, east of the Jordan River, up the Jordanian Plateau, and then into Galilee.
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And they would do so even though it was longer because they didn't want to go through the land of the Samaritans.
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Moreover, we should remember that Jesus and his disciples were not traveling from Jerusalem to Galilee, but rather from the
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Jordan River Valley, northeast of Jerusalem. We mentioned that last week. They were near where John the
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Baptist was baptizing, probably almost halfway between the
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Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea on the Jordan River. And so the quickest way to Galilee was going north or going over to the
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Transjordan and heading up to Galilee. It was probably not the most direct route to head west, go up out of that Jordan River Valley, up into the hills of Samaria, then take the major route heading north into Galilee.
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That was not necessarily the quickest route for them. But we read in verse 4, he needed to go through Samaria.
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Now it had bothered his disciples with their Jewish prejudices to go through that region of Samaria, but of course it wasn't a problem for Jesus.
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As one wrote, such prejudices in regard to Samaria, as those which affected the ordinary Judean devotee, would of course not influence the conduct of Jesus.
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Not a problem for him, it was for them. As one wrote, some think that Christ must needs go through Samaria because of the good work he had to do there.
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A poor woman to be converted, a lost sheep to be sought and saved. This was work his heart was upon, and therefore he must needs go this way.
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It was happy for Samaria that it lay in Christ's way, which gave him opportunity to call upon them.
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Leon Morse, who was a good commentator back in the middle 20th century wrote, the necessity for Jesus to pass through Samaria was not absolute.
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Strict Jews, like the Pharisees, disliked the Samaritans so intensely that they avoided the territory as much as possible.
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Their route from Jerusalem to Galilee lay through the region beyond the Jordan. This was considerably longer, but it avoided contact with the
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Samaritans. Those who were not so strict went through Samaria. For those in a hurry, the shorter way was a necessity.
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And Josephus uses exactly the expression rendered, must needs, when he says for rapid travel it was essential to take that route.
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John may possibly wish us to take the expression in this fashion, more probably. The necessity lies in the nature of the mission of Jesus.
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John often uses the word must of his mission. The expression points to a compelling divine necessity.
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Jesus had come as the light of the world, and it was imperative that this light shine to others than Jews. And so verse 4, he needed to go through Samaria, may not just been a practical geographical matter, but rather he needed to go through Judea because it was in the purpose of God to reach the
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Samaritan woman and the Samaritans who were there. Jesus needed to go through Samaria because he had a divine appointment with the woman of Samaria and through her the
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Samaritan inhabitants of this town of Sychar. I like the way in which the
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King James Version renders the verse, and he must needs go through Samaria. Jesus would one day say to Zacchaeus of his divine appointment with him, due to the decree of God, Zacchaeus make haze come down, in other words come down out of that sycamore tree, for today
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I must stay at your house. It was in the eternal decree of God that Jesus go into Zacchaeus' house that day.
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It was the day of Zacchaeus' conversion. I think similar, we can understand that here.
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He must go through Samaria. That was his divine appointment. It was in the decree of God that that woman would be reached that day with the gospel and through her the entire village of Sychar.
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This meeting of this rather secular and immoral woman with Jesus Christ was in the decree of God. On this day
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God had determined that through Jesus Christ this woman's life would be forever transformed. It was an encounter determined in eternity to come to pass on this day.
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As one wrote, Alfred Edersheim wrote that classic book, The Life and Times of Jesus the
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Messiah. Once more it's when the true humanity of Jesus is set before us in the weakness of his hunger and weariness that the glory of his divine personality suddenly shines through it.
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This time it was a poor ignorant Samaritan woman who came not for any religious purpose, indeed to whom religious thought except within her own narrow circle was almost unintelligible, who became the occasion of it.
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She had come like so many of us who find the pearl in the field which we occupy in the business of everyday life on humble ordinary duty and work.
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Men call it common, but there's nothing common and unclean that God has sanctified by making use of it or which his presence and teaching may transform into a vision from heaven.
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It was a glorious day for her. The fact is that God has set a time in his eternal purpose when he calls every one of his elect unto himself and the
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Bible makes that abundantly clear. Paul wrote regarding his own salvation, he begins with a temporal clause here, speaks of time, when it pleased
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God, who separated me from my mother's womb, called me through his grace to reveal his
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Son in me, not to me, but in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood.
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If you're a Christian, it's because God established a time in his eternal decree when he would save your soul.
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You weren't saved by accident. You were saved on purpose. God has sent his
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Son into the world to save your soul and he'll go anywhere and do anything necessary.
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Jesus Christ will to save his people, the ones whom the Father gave him from eternity. The preacher in Ecclesiastes declared in God's purposes to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, and the scriptures also reveal that to every one of God's elect there is a time to be born again.
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And for this woman, who had no thought this day, other than her regular chore of fetching water, this was to her the day of all days, when she would come to know savingly
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Jesus Christ. We read in verses 5 and 6 of the arrival of Jesus to Jacob's well that was in Samaria near the town of Sychar.
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And so he came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son
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Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well, and it was about the sixth hour.
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This plot of ground had some history behind it. We read in Genesis 33 that when
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Jacob had returned to the land of promise after 20 years living with his uncle Laban and Paddan Aram, he bought a field from the children of Hamar for 100 pieces of money.
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Genesis 33 .19. And it was here that Jacob dug a well that refreshed many in that region and travelers through that region.
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And later Jacob gave this land to his son Joseph. And we read of this in Genesis 48 .22.
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More I've given to you, one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and bow.
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And later when Joseph was about to die in Egypt, he gave instruction regarding his body. And Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying,
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God will surely visit you. You should carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died being 110 years old.
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They embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. But later in Joshua, we read the children of Israel fulfilled
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Joseph's desire. And Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for 100 pieces of silver from the sons of Amor, the father
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Shechem. And this became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants. And so for the
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Jew of the first century, this was nearly sacred ground, located just outside the ancient city of Shechem.
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But it must have troubled them greatly. The Jews greatly, the Samaritans had control of the land that for so long had belonged to Israel.
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That must have compounded the issue. And we read in verse 5,
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Jesus therefore being wearied from his journey, sat thus on the well, or sat by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
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Here we see the humanity of our Lord on display, and I think this is important. He was weary from his journey.
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Jesus and his disciples who accompanied him would have traveled all morning long out from the deep
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Jordan River Valley, up out of that canyon, as it were, up into the hills of Samaria.
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It was the sixth hour, which was noon, as figured by most commentators.
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Not all, but most. As one wrote, a contemporary commentator, the setting of this scene creates a powerful image.
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In the middle of the day, on soil upon which God had already worked, the Christ sat at the well of Jacob.
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The sun of the day was beating down on the sun, who himself is light in a world that's overtaken by darkness.
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As much as this piece of land was significant for the Jewish people, the impending encounter would make this property significant to the whole world.
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Others, however, believe this sixth hour should be understood as the early evening, 6 p .m. rather than noon.
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And the difference in time is due to a different opinion as to whether John wrote his gospel using Roman time or Jewish time.
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Roman time would be like hours. We have 12 at noon, then 6 hours would be 6 p .m.
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in the early evening. Jews, however, reckoned time from the dawn, and so 6 hours from dawn would be noon.
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Alfred Edersheim believed this meeting between Jesus and the woman was later in the evening, 6 o 'clock. He wrote, it was about 6 o 'clock in the evening when the travel -stained pilgrims reached that parcel of ground which, according to the ancient
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Jewish tradition, Jacob had given to his son Joseph. I think, however, as I considered the different commentators and arguments, and William Hendrickson argued long and hard for a 6 p .m.
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time that it was probably about noon. Donald Carson argued that it was in the heat of the day, noon, when this occurred, and I think he was probably right.
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This was also the view of John Calvin, by the way. And Jesus, fatigued by the journey, he did not pretend weariness, but was actually fatigued, for in order that he might be better prepared for the exercise of sympathy and compassion towards us, he took upon our weaknesses, as the apostle shows that we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
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With this agrees the circumstance of the time, for it is not wonderful that, or probably is it not wonderful, that being thirsty and fatigued, he rested at the well about noon, for as the day when sunrise to sunset had 12 hours, the 6th hour was noon.
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When the evangelist says that he sat thus, he means that it was the attitude of a man who is fatigued.
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We can receive consolation from the fact that our
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Savior was wearied. Alexander McLaren, I have the full set,
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I don't know, it must be 40 volumes. He was a contemporary preacher in London during the days of Spurgeon.
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Quite articulate. How precious it is to us that this gospel, which has the loftiest things to say about the manifest divinity of our
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Lord and the glory that dwelt in him, is always careful to emphasize also the manifest limitations and weaknesses of the manhood.
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John never forgets either the term of his great sentence in which all the gospel is condensed, the word became flesh.
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Ever he shows us the word, ever the flesh, and thus it is he only that records the saying on the cross,
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I thirst. It is he who tells us how Jesus Christ, not merely for the sake of getting a convenient opening of a conversation or to conciliate prejudices, but because he needed what he asked, said to the woman of Samaria, give me to drink.
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And so the weariness of the master stands forth for us as a pathetic proof that it was no shadowy investiture of an apparent manhood to which he stooped, but a real participation in our limitations and weaknesses so that the work to him was fatigue, even though in him dwelt the manifest glory of that divine nature which fainted not, neither is weary.
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That would change Roman Catholic teaching if they took that to heart. Where they have
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Jesus Christ, clearly, you know, Roman Catholicism teaches the Trinity as we do, and they're certainly right on the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, but they have so reduced the humanity of Jesus that he is so far removed we can't really relate to him.
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You need intercessors, those intervening. You need a priest, a pope, an angel, a
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Mary, or somebody to appeal to Jesus, and then he'll appeal to his father. And that's not how the
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Bible presents Jesus. He presents him as one of us in his humanity, and he was wearied here at the well, and we ought to be encouraged by that.
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And as suggested by Calvin that we read above, here we witness Jesus in his human nature, who is at times very much like us.
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He was wearied. The Bible says, for Jesus is the high priest of his people, the
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Israel of God. Under the Old Testament economy, when Israel was constituted as an ethnic, physical people, nation, the high priest was from the tribe of Levi, even the family of Aaron.
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But under the New Testament, or New Covenant economy, in which Israel is constituted a spiritual people, those who believe like Abraham, our high priest
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Jesus Christ is from the tribe of Judah. And Jesus was qualified to be our high priest, although he was not from the tribe of Levi, because his priesthood was of a different order.
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His priesthood was according to the order of Melchizedek, not Levi. But the writer to the
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Hebrews, in arguing that Jesus was indeed a qualified high priest, he set forth in Hebrews chapter 5 some essential characteristics of a legitimate high priest.
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Every high priest is taken from among men, and is appointed for men and things pertaining to God, so that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
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He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.
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I emboldened that, I italicized that. Every high priest in the Old Testament was a human being.
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And this is one reason he was qualified to represent us. Because of this, he required us for the people, also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sin.
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And no man takes this honor upon himself. In other words, a high priest had to be appointed by God. And the writer went on to say that Jesus was appointed by God, and therefore legit as a high priest.
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And here in John 4 verse 5, we see the qualification for high priesthood displayed for us, and that he was wearied in his journey.
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Let's make an application. Are you weary in your journey? We become wearied, don't we, at times.
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As you're traveling to your heavenly Jerusalem, perhaps you've been enduring hardship for some time, having to bear a great burden upon your soul, and you are wearied.
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Well, here you are. Take heart. As a Christian, you have a sympathetic high priest who can help you.
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He sympathizes with you, for he knows experientially what it is to be wearied himself.
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He knows, therefore, the weakness of your frame, the inability for you to travel further, and so sit down on the well beside Jesus, for he was weary too, and he'll be able to draw water to refresh and revitalize you for that next segment of your journey.
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He's able and willing to give you grace to help you in your time of need. That's what high priests do.
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And the one who declares, Any and all, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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He can do so, for he himself was weary on occasion, and we have that certainly set before us here in John 4.
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Amen? Well, now we read of Jesus engaging, meeting and engaging this
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Samaritan woman in conversation. Verses 7 and 8. His divinely appointed meeting, which we considered in verse 4.
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A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
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Women normally came to a well in groups rather than alone. This woman was alone.
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They also would either come to the well early or later in the day, not during the heat of the midday. And by the way, this is probably one reason it wasn't at 6 p .m.
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in the evening. There would have been other women there too, probably. She was alone. This would have already suggested to Jesus that she was a woman with little or no regard by others in her community.
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She had been a sinful woman. Her behavior betrayed the fact. And she knew that it was so.
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She must have felt ashamed to be among other women of her society. She needed water, as all did so.
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But she'd come to the well when she'd not be seen or have to interact with other people. But on this occasion, she found this
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Jewish man sitting on the edge of the well who requested that she draw water so that he might be refreshed from his journey.
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And it surprised her, greatly so. This is something that didn't happen.
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That this Jewish man spoke to her and that he asked to drink from a vessel of hers would have been quite unconventional, perhaps even shocking to her.
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Although some Jews could imagine eating with Samaritans, as a Jewish book records, the
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Mishnah, doubtless many a Jew would not eat with a Samaritan on the latter's home turf for fear of incurring ritual defilement.
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And probably this fear was intensified when the Samaritan was a woman, as one wrote.
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The Samaritan woman's surprise is therefore entirely understandable. Jesus was a Jew and she was both a
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Samaritan and a woman. From her perspective, she dismisses him as a Jew. Later on,
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Jews will dismiss him as a Samaritan. Remember that? They say, you're a
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Samaritan and you have a demon. But if Jesus cannot be other than alien, he nevertheless wins some
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Jews and some Samaritans. At this point, however, the woman's not about to be won. She cannot fathom what would possess a
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Jew to ask her for a drink. She does not know that far from being defiled by what is unclean,
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Jesus sanctifies what he touches. Others who touch lepers become unclean. Jesus touches a leper and brings healing.
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Some, by the way, have drawn a stark difference between Jesus engaging Nicodemus in chapter 3 and Jesus engaging this
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Samaritan woman in chapter 4. I wouldn't have thought that, but it certainly is true.
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As one said, D .A. Carson, a religious male Jewish aristocrat like Nicodemus or an untrained female
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Samaritan peasant who had made a mess of her life, Jesus converses frankly with both and happily breaks social and religious taboos to do so.
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So the contrast between these two people could not have been greater. Nicodemus and this Samaritan woman.
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And so we first read of Jesus dealing with a self -righteous, educated formalist in Nicodemus.
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We then read of our Savior dealing with an ignorant, carnal -minded woman whose moral character was more than ordinarily bad.
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Jesus and this Samaritan woman were alone, or at least it might appear at first glance, first reading, for his disciples had left there in order to purchase food.
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They would have gone to one of the local villages, probably Sychar, which lied just a half a mile away from the well.
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But perhaps they were not entirely alone. And there's been some suggestion that maybe the young apostle
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John was with Jesus. The whole account here in John 4 appears to be that of an eyewitness.
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And it was suggested that it would have been unlikely that the disciples would have left Jesus alone in that situation, in that place.
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And I think that's probably right. In verse 9, the woman expressed her surprise toward Jesus, perhaps with a measure of indignance.
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Then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?
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For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. The two never mixed in company.
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Let's consider for a moment the nature of her response. He asked for water from her. And she seemed to rebuff him, perhaps revealing her own prejudice.
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But our Lord was patient with her, for he cared for his soul. I pulled out
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Charles Spurgeon on this, a sermon on this. He actually gave two sermons on verse 9 here of John 4.
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Or is it verse 10? I forget. Spurgeon wrote, I could not help saying in the reading that the woman's answer to our
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Lord was at least somewhat brusque, if not really rude. But with great meekness,
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Jesus took no notice of it as to blame her for her tone or for her unkind manner.
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He was too intent upon saving her soul to care about a little rudeness on her part.
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Learn a lesson from our Lord's conduct. When you're dealing with souls, do not always expect them to yield to you at once.
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Do not expect them even to receive your expostulations with thankfulness. Be prepared to be repelled and even to be ridiculed.
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And when it so happens, do not be put out of temper or out of heart, but go straight on with your work, whichever way that may go.
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Our Savior, instead of being vexed at the rudeness of the woman, said to her, If thou knewest,
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Ah, poor soul, thou dost not know to whom thou art speaking thus rudely. If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee,
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Give me to drink, thou, thou wouldst have asked him, and he would have given thee living water.
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Oh, that we might have a passion for the souls of men. May we be vehement in our desire with a love that burneth like coals of juniper.
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May we not be put off by any discouragements, but let us resolve that before we have done with any poor sinner, we will do all in our power to bring him to Christ, so that if men are lost, it shall not be our fault.
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And if they're saved, we will at least have this part in it, that we've set Christ plainly before them as their soul's only hope.
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Amen. Most of our
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English translations have this verse reading, For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
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But actually, there may have been a more specific idea being conveyed by John's words. F. F. Brooks, 20th century commentator, provided his own translation.
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Jews do not use the same vessels as Samaritans. That may have been what she was conveying.
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He also placed this expression in parentheses, as F. F. Brooks did, indicating more directly it was the Apostle John's own explanation of her comment.
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So here was F. F. Brooks' statement. The evangelist's explanation of her surprise, another of his typical parentheses, is not simply that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, but more specifically, that Jews and Samaritans, it should be noted, do not use vessels in common.
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If the woman complied with Jesus' request, he would have had to drink from her vessel, since he has none of his own.
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This would have involved a risk of ceremonial pollution for a Jew, even if the owner of the vessel had been a male
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Samaritan. But the fact that she was a woman made the risk a certainty, from the standpoint of a strictly observant Jew.
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No wonder that Jesus' request astonished the woman. By asking such a favor from her, he had shown most unexpected goodwill.
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And then Donald Carson agreed with F. F. Brooks. Meanwhile, John parenthetically explains why the woman is so suspicious.
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For Jews do not use dishes Samaritans have used. That would be Carson's translation.
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Actually, he takes it from a footnote in the NIV. That is probably the meaning of the Greek text, as Augustine understood.
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Although the verb, and then you have the Greek word, sukrinti, and by the way, the first three letters of that s -u -n is a preposition meaning with, and so it's put onto this verb, and so there they get the idea of sharing with.
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And then he said, Carson says, it more commonly means to use together with the object, that would be the vessel being understood from the context.
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And so there may have been that nuance. You're asking me to give water from, you're willing to drink out of my cup?
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Water from this well? That surprised her. Perhaps it would help us to understand the animosity between the
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Jews and Samaritans, and I went through some history. We're not going to read that, we're not going to go through that, but we'll just simply say that, you know, the
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Samaritans were not Jews. They had been imported by the Assyrians after the
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Assyrians took the Jews out of the region of Samaria. And then these foreigners adopted some of the
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Jewish practices because they were concerned about neglecting the gods of the land. They embraced the five books of Moses, they developed their own priesthood, and in 400
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B .C. they built their own temple there on Mount Gerizim. And then to compound things, in 108
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B .C., John Hyrcanus, a Jewish leader of Israel at the time, during the
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Hasmonean rulership, destroyed that temple on Mount Gerizim.
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And so here Jesus is sitting with his woman at the well. Mount Gerizim is just right there, and they could probably see the ruins of the
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Samaritan temple that the Jews had destroyed a hundred years before. There's all kinds of things going on here that would have contributed to the difficulty between these two people, or at least from the perspective of her.
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But our Lord broke through the prejudice and presented himself to her, holding forth hope for her.
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By the way, I appreciate what J .C. Ryle wrote about this, again, speaking about how we can help or be used of the
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Lord to reach people. We should mark, firstly, the mingled tact and condescension of Christ in dealing with a careless sinner.
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And what Ryle is saying, this is how we should deal with careless sinners. And we mean by careless sinners that don't care.
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Alright, that's what he's talking about. Our Lord was sitting by Jacob's well when a woman of Samaria came thither to draw water.
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We're at the top, page 9. And at once he says to her, give me to drink. He does not wait for her to speak to him.
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He does not begin to reprove her for her sins, though he doubtless knew them. He opens communication by asking a favor.
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He approaches the woman's mind by the subject of water, which was naturally uppermost in her thoughts.
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Simple as this request may seem, it opened a door to spiritual conversation. It threw a bridge across the gulf which lay between her and him.
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It led to the conversion of her soul. Our Lord's conduct in this place should be carefully remembered by all who want to do good to the thoughtless and spiritually ignorant.
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It is vain to expect that such persons will voluntarily come to us and begin to seek knowledge. We must begin with them.
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Go down to them in the spirit of courteous and friendly aggression. I like that expression. It is vain to expect such persons will be prepared for our instruction and will at once see and acknowledge the wisdom of what we're doing.
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We must go to work wisely. We must study the best avenues to their hearts and the most likely ways of arresting their attention.
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There is a handle to every mind, and our chief aim must be to get hold of it. Above all, we must be kind in manner and beware of showing that we feel conscious of our own superiority.
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If we let ignorant people fancy that we think we're doing them a great favor in talking to them about religion, they're in little hope of doing good to their souls.
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I think that's good counsel. Our Lord Jesus broke through the supreme prejudice that existed between these two peoples.
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This kind of barrier exists today, doesn't it? Prejudice. In fact, in some ways it appears much worse today than a few decades ago.
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We're to have a Christian worldview, a biblical worldview of humanity. Every man, woman, boy or girl is the image of God.
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That's foundational to our understanding as Christians. Yes, being the image of God brings responsibility to every human being, but it also conveys a measure of dignity for every human being.
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Irrespective of ethnic or national origin, the kingdom of God knows no boundaries.
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And don't misunderstand, this doesn't translate into the spirit of globalism, which is present today.
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The idea of the world should not be divided into nations with borders. Nations are in the divine wisdom of God.
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When an evil nation has arisen in history, there is a nation more righteous that puts it down.
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If we didn't have nations in the world, we would be living under a dictatorship before long, with few people in absolute power.
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God has ordained nations and their existence in history. And certainly every nation must have ethical and legal standards of immigration and citizenship.
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But regarding the worth of human beings, the Christians should see no borders.
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Every human being is the image of God. And it's the will and purpose of God, the kingdom of God, as populated with people from every tribe and nation of the earth.
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Prejudice in this regard is terribly sinful. So whenever we see a human being, no matter what race, what tribe, what nation, what gender, no matter what kind or degree of sin they're in, we should see a human being the image of God and treat that person with respect.
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Again, that aggravates their condemnation. You're the image of God. Look what you've done with it. That's not to excuse or overlook sin in any way.
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But the fact is that God created that individual as his image. And that person has the capacity, capability of glorifying
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God in his life. And we should have that understanding. Every soul should be seen as a mission to win him or her to the kingdom through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ.
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And when Jesus made this request to this woman, she immediately knew there was something different and unique about this
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Jewish man. And she was apparently intrigued and at least willing to converse with him on this occasion.
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And her life, of course, would never be the same. She came out of the city of Sychar that day, fallen and hopeless.
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She returned to her city with a glorious testimony. She said to all the men, come out here.
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Look, he told me everything that I've done, implying he knows everything you did too. And they all came out to see
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Jesus. We have to wrap things up here, but let's just look at verse 10.
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We'll close here. Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God, who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him.
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He would have given you living water. Here we see the heart of her problem. She was spiritually ignorant of who
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Jesus Christ was. Jesus Christ sets himself forth as the gift of God.
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And there's a direct article there in Greek, the gift of God. Not just a gift among other gifts.
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He was the gift of God. Every good gift, every perfect gift that we enjoy comes from God.
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James wrote of that. But the gift that God has given is in his son. That's what John 3 .16
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states, right? God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. It was a gift. Jesus Christ is the gift.
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Had you known the gift, he says to this woman, you would have asked of him. But the full nature of the gift of God to us in Jesus Christ is truly incomprehensible.
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She was clueless and so was every other human being. Unless the
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Holy Spirit opens their eyes of understanding. And he did for this woman.
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Through his own words, Jesus' own words. Again, Spurgeon wrote of this unspeakable gift.
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The text uses the definite article, if you knew the gift of God. Setting Christ as God's gift beyond all other gifts.
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True, the light of the sun is a gift of God to us. There's not a piece of bread we eat nor a drop of water we drink.
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But what it may be called the gift of God. But the gift which comprehends, excels and sanctifies all other gifts is the gift of Jesus Christ to the sons of men.
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I wish I had the power to speak as I should of this gift. But I'm reminded by God's word, it's unspeakable.
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Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. I can comprehend God's giving the earth to the children of men.
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Giving to Adam and his seed dominion over all the works of his hands. I think I can understand God giving heaven to his people.
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Permitting them to dwell in his right hand forever and ever. But that God should give the only begotten.
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Very God of very God. To take upon himself our nature. And in that nature actually to be obedient unto death.
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Even the death of the cross. This we cannot understand. And even the angels with their mightier intellects cannot grasp it fully.
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They look into it but as they gaze they desire to see more. For even they feel they cannot search this out to perfection.
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A depth unfathomable of divine love is there in the condescending loving kindness. Which Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ to die for us when we were yet sinners.
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So we'll close. But as we do let us ask our God to grant us great grace that we can comprehend more fully.
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All that God has given us who believe in Jesus Christ. May we be filled with knowledge. May we not be ignorant, uninformed or in error.
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Regarding the person of the Lord Jesus. And then lastly may the Holy Spirit give each of us a fresh and full look into the face of Jesus Christ.
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As we sit by him in our devotions. As we walk by him each and every day. There's never a place
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Christian where Jesus Christ is not with you. Lo I'm with you all the way even on to the end of the age.
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And we ought to be cognizant of that. Right. It'll make you a more holy person won't you.
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Won't it. The reason you sin is you think you're alone. If Jesus was walking next to you
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I doubt if you'd be sinning as much would you. Even if I was walking next to you probably wouldn't sin as much.
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But we ought to be cognizant that Jesus is walking with us and sitting by us. And may the
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Holy Spirit enable us to do so. Through our devotions and through our fellowship with one another.
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Let's pray. Father thank you for this story that we have recounting.
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This glorious encounter with this woman. In which she was utterly transformed.
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Help us our Lord to look for opportunities. To reveal
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Christ to others. And again Lord it's with view to this coming week's events.
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In our church in our community. We desire that you would help us our Lord. Particularly those that are devoting their time for this end tract distribution.
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And engaging people. Help us to represent Jesus Christ faithfully and fully to them.
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And bless our efforts. May we see conversions our God. Just as this woman was wonderfully converted on this day.