Christ's Love Overcomes Sin and the Fear of Death

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to.

Jesus at Jacob’s Well in John 4

St. John the fourth chapter. Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there so Jesus wearied as he was from his journey was sitting beside the well.

It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. A Samaritan woman said to him how is it that you a Jew ask for a drink from me a woman of Samaria?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her 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.

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? Are you greater than our father Jacob? So he gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock.

Jesus said to her everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

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. Jesus said to her go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him I have no husband.

Jesus said to her well you're right in saying you have no husband for you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true. The woman said to him sir I perceive you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where the people ought to worship. Jesus said to her woman believe me the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father.

You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews but the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him.

God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And the woman said to him I know that the Messiah is coming he who is called Christ. When he comes he will tell us all things.

Jesus said to her I who speak to you am he. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Alright I cannot help but make mention of the fact that the world has gone nuts. It's lost its collective mind and there's fear and there's panic.

I mean if you were to watch the zombie movies you were expecting something different than this but what did we get? We got fear, panic and no toilet paper. I'm a little bit upset about that. But what is driving all of this?

What on earth is driving all of this? The answer is actually simple. What's driving all of this is fear of death. But it's a little bit deeper than that. If you want to kind of push just a little bit past the fear of death.

The thing that everyone's afraid of it's not dying. It's standing before Christ on the day of judgment. See every one of us scripture tells we all know that God exists. We all do. We have the law written on our hearts and we know for a fact that we have woefully fallen short that we have transgressed God's holy commands and that each and every one of us we deserve God's wrath.

And so the thing is is that how's the phrase go YOLO you only live once. That's not exactly true. Actually those who die in trespasses and sins they die twice. And that's the thing that everyone's afraid of.

Everyone is afraid of God's justice, God's judgment. They all know they're guilty and as a result of it they've stolen all the toilet paper. All of that being said I want to take into consideration our text today that shows us and gives us comfort.

Christ’s Promise That His Word Prevents Death

I would remind all of us of a very important text in the Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 51. Jesus says these words, Amen, Amen, I say to you if anyone keeps, keeps tereo means to guard, to hold sacred, to actually, it's not a matter of obeying it's a matter of listening to Jesus' words and saying these are the words of God.

This is most certainly true. Hanging on these. If anyone keeps my word he will never see death. Now wait a second here. Wait a second. There's people dying all over the world. I heard today that in Italy the obituaries are running 10 pages long because of how many people are dying as a result of the coronavirus.

Are you saying pastor that we will never see death? No, I'm not saying it. Jesus said it. And why is it? Because we're all already dead. We've been baptized into Christ's death and his resurrection. We don't get to die twice.

You get to die once. And so you've already died. So live like you are free because you've already died. All of that being said, I would note that over and again the Gospels have good news to proclaim to us.

We who live in the valley of the shadow of death, who have, well, the fear of death hanging over us, we might want to consider just how kind Jesus is to sinners. Because in his first advent Jesus didn't come to condemn the world.

He came so that the world might be saved through him. And so our Gospel text today is amazing. A little bit of the historical setup. You heard it in our Gospel text. Jews and Samaritans don't talk to each other.

The people in the northern kingdom of Israel in the time of the Old Testament went into rank idolatry. Remember that bronze serpent that Moses had made? They ended up worshiping that thing. They set up their own temple complex on the top of Mount Gerizim near Sychar or the ancient city of Shechem.

And they, well, they were idolaters straight up. They had come up with some weird syncretistic idolatry mixed with some remembrance of Yahweh and the patriarchs. And it was just a theological mess. And so the Jews responded by basically saying, we're going to not have anything to do with you.

And so they stopped talking altogether. In fact, during Christmas and Thanksgiving, religion was off the table to discuss because nobody was getting along. Nobody was talking to each other. So you got the idea.

In fact, it was so bad that when Jews would travel through Samaria, which they tried to avoid like the plague, they would, well, after they got through Samaria, they'd shake the dust of Samaria off their sandals so they wouldn't be tracking Samaritan dirt into the Holy Land itself.

That's how things had gone. And so it says that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. That's what John chapter 4 verse 4 says. He had to pass through Samaria. And anybody who knows the history is going to sit there and go, well, this ought to be interesting.

Because the expectation is that Jesus is going to show up. He's going to overturn the Samaritan tables. He's going to call down curses on the false worship taking place on Mount Gerizim. He's going to nuke the site from orbit like he did Sodom and Gomorrah.

That's the expectation. It's like, oh, here it comes. The Messiah meets the Samaritans. And it's just going to be, well, it didn't go according to plan. So the text says he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar.

Now this is right between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal where Old Shechem used to be in that region. And Jacob's well was near. And we know exactly where that is. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, what?

God gets tired? Well, the incarnation kind of changes a few things up. You'll note that Jesus is truly human. And he, well, he gets tired. And it's noon, which is not a good time to travel. And so he was wearied from his journey.

He was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. That's noon. And we're going to note a woman from Samaria came to draw water, which is a weird time to draw water. Usually in the ancient world you draw water either in the morning or in the evening right before the sun sets.

Why? Because it's a lot cooler. In fact, you can say this woman is engaging in social distancing. Why? Well, we've already heard that her morals are a wee bit loose. A wee bit loose, shall we say. Even loose by Samaritan standards.

So coming at noon makes it a lot easier for her to draw her water and not have to be exposed to other people and their ridicule, their scorn, their self-righteousness and things like that. Now granted, she's a rank sinner.

But the text says a woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. His disciples had gone into town to buy some food and the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. How is it you're talking to me like this? Aren't you aware we're having a cold war here? Negotiations have broken down. There is no communication. Jesus said to her, and listen to the first words out of his mouth, if you knew the gift of God.

The gift of God? Jesus is bringing her a gift from God? 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.

No, Jesus here is basically saying, I've got a gift to give you. It's from God. Ask of me and I'll give it to you. Huh? So the woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with. The well is deep. Where do you get that?

And you could almost hear it. Living water. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.

And so you'll note here, Jesus here is talking about living water. And it's akin to what we heard regarding Nicodemus. Remember, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and says we know you're from God. Nobody can do these signs unless God were with him.

And so Jesus says, amen, amen, truly I say to you, unless one is born anothen. That's either from above or again. Those are your two options. Unless one is born anothen, he will not see the kingdom of God.

And what does Nicodemus do? He thinks, again? How can a guy be born once he's old? That doesn't make any sense. Same thing is going on here. Jesus now is talking about living water and this woman is still thinking you know, water, water.

But Jesus is talking about something different because he's really talking about himself. So Jesus says, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. Whoever drinks of the water that I will give, not earn, give to him will never thirst again.

The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. She's still not quite getting it. She's still thinking some kind of natural water. Maybe it's some kind of water that has a spell cast on it.

This seems pretty good. Ah, the idea of me actually drinking water that will make it so that I'm never thirsty again. I won't have to come out here at noon every day in order to get my supply of water.

So the woman said sir, give me this water so that I will not have to be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. And Jesus then at this point kind of changes the subject. He says, alright, go call your husband and come.

I'll give you this living water. Call your husband so he can have it too. And now the woman's caught. She's stuck. But she gives an extremely perfectly accurate answer. She just doesn't elaborate. The sentence is technically true.

So the woman says, I don't have a husband. Oh, okay. Jesus said, alright, you're right. You're right in saying I don't have a husband. You've had five husbands and the guy you're shacking up with right now, he's not your husband.

What you've said is true. Okay. So Jesus took all of her sin, just threw it right out on the table. No condemnation, just spoke the truth about her. And now the conversation takes on a completely different tone.

The religion card is now on the table. So the woman said, sir, I perceive you're a prophet. How did you possibly know all of that? And then she goes to the big bone of contention between the Samaritans and Jews and she says, our fathers, our Samaritan fathers, they worshiped on this mountain, Mount Gerizim.

But you say in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. And Jesus' answer is actually quite fascinating. Jesus said to her woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

And now watch what Jesus says. He does not in any way condone the religion of the Samaritans. He says you worship what you don't know. There is no true knowledge of God in your religion. And we, Jews, we worship what we know.

And then he says for salvation is from the Jews. Notice he doesn't say that salvation is in Judaism. He says salvation is from the Jews. And that is absolutely correct. Salvation is from the Jews. Jesus is of the tribe of Judah.

Salvation truly is from the Jews. Then he says, but the hour is coming and it is now here presently. The clock has struck. Something has changed. And the time is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Note, the two go together. Where you're claiming to worship God in spirit and there is no truth, you've got a problem. Or there's a mixing of truth with a lot of bad air, that's a problem. In fact, evangelicals today, they sit there and go, doctrine doesn't really matter.

It just doesn't really matter. They've come to church and listen to what the Spirit is saying and learn how to spit out the bones and chew the meat they say. No, no, no. Jesus says spirit and in truth.

The two go together because the Spirit is the Spirit of truth. So the Father is looking for true worshipers. They will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is seeking such people to worship Him.

God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Not the exact answer we were expecting from Jesus. You would have thought He would have said, yeah, you guys need to pack up and start heading to Jerusalem and worship on Mount Moriah.

But He doesn't say that. He says, no, the time is coming and is now when it doesn't matter where you worship God. This is why the church historically understood itself to be Catholic. Universal. Don't think Rome.

Every time I say the word, everyone goes... The idea here is that this is a universal religion. We are able to worship God in spirit and truth in Oslo, Minnesota, Grand Forks, North Dakota. You could do it in the Twin Cities in Minneapolis, St. Paul, or you can do it in Texas.

You can do it anywhere you are. You can worship the Lord God in spirit and truth. You don't have to pack up and head to Jerusalem to do so. So now the woman, hearing Jesus' answer, she notes that she has heard something about the Messiah.

The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ, and when He comes, He will tell us all things. What Jesus does next is stunning because you'll note in chapters that follow when Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees and the scribes, they say things like this to Jesus.

How long are you going to keep us in suspense, Jesus? If you're the Messiah, tell us plainly. And Jesus says, I did and you wouldn't listen to me. But the works that I do, they bear witness about me. So you'll note there's always this little bit of Jesus doesn't quite come out and say it directly, but He says it in a way that if you listen to His words, He is saying it.

But watch what He does with the Samaritan woman. So she says, I know that Messiah is coming, and when He comes, He's going to tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. What?

To a adulterous, sinful, idolatrous, Samaritan woman. Jesus just puts all the defenses down and just comes right out and says, I'm the Messiah. What is going on here? This is not what we expected. We expected Jesus to flex some judgment muscles here, to tell this woman off.

He's laid all her sins out right before her. And what is He doing? His intention is not to kill her, to judge her. He's going to the cross to bleed and to die for her, so that she can be forgiven. Not just her, but all of the town of Sychar and the Samaritans, all the nations of the earth, that they might be saved through Him.

His intention is pardon, forgiveness, mercy, grace. Now if this doesn't tell us something about Jesus, then I don't know what does. Because again, the reason why there's no toilet paper in town is because people fear God's judgment.

But the good news is that in Christ there is mercy and forgiveness, pardon and peace with God, and therefore we have nothing to fear from Him. So put the toilet paper back. That's the idea. So the text goes on to say that this woman went out and she went into town.

So just then His disciples came back. They marveled that Jesus was talking with a woman, but no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her jar, went away into town, and said to the people, come see a man who told me everything that I've ever done.

Can this be the Messiah? Huh. So they went out of town and they were coming to Him. I almost like to cynically think that there's somebody in town, upon hearing this woman screaming and carrying on, you've got to come see.

He told me everything I've ever done. We all know about that already. What are you talking about? I haven't seen you at the well for a while. Have you been sneaking there at noon? Yeah. So she's now just coming.

He told me all my sins, man. This is the Messiah. So, verse 39 says, many Samaritans from that town came, from that town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony. He had told me all that I ever did.

So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Jesus to stay with them. And He stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of His word. And so 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. And so note, the Samaritans and Sychar confessed Christ to be the Savior of the world. Jesus is our Savior from the dominion of darkness, from sin, death, and the devil.

He has not come to earth incarnate of the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary in order to condemn us or to wage war with us presently. Instead, He's come to save us. He's come to save us. And it's in that context then that we hear the words of our epistle text where Paul writes, we have been justified by faith and therefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And if we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, then we should not fear death. We should not fear His wrath or His judgment. Because if Christ has truly died for every one of our transgressions and sins, and He has, and they're all accounted for, then we do not have Christ's sternness, anger, or wrath to look forward to.

But instead, we have everything to look forward to in a face-to-face restored relationship with God that comes when Jesus returns. And that peace will last through all eternity in a world without end, in a new heaven, in a new earth, where there is no disease, coronavirus, and I've heard there's plenty of toilet paper too.

So because we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Him then we have obtained access by faith into this grace. Just like the sinful woman of Samaria and Sychar, we too have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice then in the hope of the glory of God.

For while we were still weak, the text says, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. He died for the ungodly woman of Sychar. He died for the ungodly here in this congregation. He died for your ungodly pastor.

At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. One will scarcely die for a righteous person. Perhaps for a good person, one would dare to die. But God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And now this makes sense. The reason why Jesus didn't get in her face and condemn her and call down Sulfur from heaven to destroy Sychar and the temple complex at Mount Gerizim is because He Himself was taking the wrath of God on Him, suffering in her place what she deserved for her adultery and her idolatry, for your sins and mine, so that rather than to be condemned we have peace, forgiveness, mercy, grace.

And those are words that quell anxiety. Those are words that make it so that we do not have to fear death. We do not have to fear the coronavirus, even if one of us gets it, or if we all get it and die and there's no Kongsvinger in a month.

We will never see death. Jesus doesn't lie. So relax. You are forgiven. You have peace with God. We have more important things to worry about now, like where to find the toilet paper. In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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