Gospel of John Series - Yet a Time Is Coming and has now come...

           “Yet a time is coming and has now come…” Part 1

John 4:3-26

  I walk frequently to exercise and to listen and talk with God. Jesus must have walked twenty miles or more from Judea to Sychar. This makes me think about his weariness in flesh yet revived in the Spirit’s leading that day at the well near Sychar. Let’s look at the text, “So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.” It doesn’t say if the trip was done in a day, or two, but still that is a good pace for 5 hours (7am-12:00 noon). The setting of going through Samaria was a divine decision for two reasons. First, the jews disciples would have taken a different route to skirt around Samaria, given their traditional racist hatred of Samaritans. Second, God had planned this particular moment in time to reach a wayward heart of a people that God loves. Coming to Jacob’s well would have been customary for all travelers, for the well was revered by both Jews and Samaritan. Jesus, being tired, sat and rested by the well. And being the 6 hour, noon, he had sent his disciples out to buy food for their meal (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) probably in Shechem.

Application - It is interesting to follow the path Jesus took when he walked on this world. He didn’t let the prejudice of tradition or the common disdain for people’s genealogy, illnesses, or gender influence him, He knew that he came to do the will of the Father, (“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;” Isa. 61:1.) I can only imagine what it would have been like to be with the disciples who followed him. Would they have questioned his decision-making paradigm? How many Christian’s today might give Jesus advice on where and how to do things according to our customary traditions or rationalizing? Or would we be still and follow Jesus who was being led by the Holy Spirit into areas of needs in our lives, or would we just as soon not go?

      Being still and knowing that He is God is still very good advice for today, and who knows that the Holy Spirit may lead you to someone who needs to hear the gospel and experience the love of God to set them free. Here are good words to heed, “So I say, walk by the Spirit…” (Gal.5:16)

Next the extraordinary happened, a Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water at noon. Let’s look at the text, “When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ...The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”  

First, the custom would have been to come in the morning or evening to draw water, not in the heat of the day, but there were other testimonies that averted this tradition. For example, Zipporah, the shepherdess, came to a well in the heat of the day as well to water her flock of sheep because of conflict with other shepherds (Ex. 2:15-19.) Second, the tradition of the law said that a jew couldn’t drink from a vessel a Samaritan had touched, for they would be ceremonially unclean. Jesus was tired and thirsty, and he must have heard from the Father to differentiate from this custom (For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. Jn.6:38) 

Jesus’ next words were revolutionary, “Will you give me a drink?” Jesus might have looked tired and thirsty, but she said “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” The woman would have been dumbfounded, that a jewish man would even speak to her let alone have her draw water from a well in a cup that she had handled. She also had another reason more forbidden than merely touching a cup to avoid Jesus, but Jesus already knew her heart, mind, and past. When she questioned him on this atrocity, Jesus’s next words went to the heart of the woman’s need. “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you

 living water.”

The Samaritan woman must have looked astounded and puzzled, but her heart yearned for something better than what she had experienced in her life. For her next words touched deep into her aching soul for this man said that God offered her a gift of living water. Who was this man? In humbleness she asks, “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 

The Samaritan woman now opens up to her base needs, she is trying to avoid any more entanglements with society and culture, she just wants to exist without any more problems to add to her already troublesome life. She feels safe asking the obvious, he had nothing to draw water with and it was a deep well, but she moves into the deep water of her soul to ask for living water, and who is this man who claims to give gifts from God?

Application - Jesus is a trend setter. He countercultures many of his decisions to do things that are taboo to the religious traditions of today. In doing this, it gives the person who is already feeling ostracized from society a feeling that perhaps there is hope. The promise of living water (the Holy Spirit) is foreign even to many religious people today, but like the woman at the well, there are those who are thirsty for more than the usual and ordinary. They desire to be set free by the good news of the gospel, to be loose of the bindings of sin and brokenheartedness, and to be set free of the captivity of sin and filled with the living water to never have to thirst again for the water of the world (the religiosity and traditional culture of mankind). Like the woman at the well, many will ask, “who is this Jesus? Is he like our religious traditions we have learned? It is times like this we too, can offer them living water, and the gospel of hope through faith in Jesus Christ.

Last, Jesus disclosed something personal about the woman, for he knew what was really keeping her soul captive. Let’s look at the text, “He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 

The door to her heart is now open. Jesus later said in Rev. 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”  Jesus begins this portion of the conversation revealing knowledge of her most intimate 

anxieties and desperate desires. She had been married to five different men. It doesn’t say if they were divorced or that the men died, leaving her to brothers as a wife (Deut. 25:5-10). In any case, she is now living out of wedlock, in an adulterous affair, and in tradition she is an outcast. She would have been ostracized by the entire community, thus why she was getting water at high noon, to avoid people. She acknowledges her unrighteousness instead of hiding, lying about, or justifying it. She tells Jesus the truth. After Jesus acknowledges that this is the truth, she now tries to justify herself by the religious traditions of the place in which she is living. 

Mt. Gerizim is a twin mountain, the other is Mt. Ebal, along the road from Jerusalem to Galilee. During the time of the jewish high priest Manasseh, who took a samaritan woman as a wife, Sanballat offered to build a temple like Jerusalem’s on Mt. Gerizim as a peace offering between the Jews and Samaritans.Thus, this is the temple of the Samaritans into which the Samaritan woman worshiped. 

This led Jesus to proclaiming the revelation of true worship of God to her. Let’s look at the text, “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Jesus, seeing the faith of this Samaritan woman, reveals to her that her worship of the “mountain of blessing” from Moses’ command (Deut. 27) is only tradition and the worship was the work of mankind. The worship that the Father seeks is not found in the works of mankind. Jesus knew true worship must be led by the Holy Spirit from the heart, sincere and motivated by love for God. As well, worship must be in truth, in alignment with the teaching of God from Moses and the prophets. Jesus may have wanted her to understand the teachings of Samuel, But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 1 Sam. 15:22” Jesus was reaching deep into her soul and spirit, she needed to hear that God was Spirit and must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth, for these are what pleases God the Father. 

In response, she recognizes that Jesus must be divinely sent, a prophet. But Jesus' next revelation was about to open her spiritual eyes to the truth. Let’s look at the text, The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” Jesus now reveals who he truly is to a woman who had been seeking an evasive hope through tradition. She has only heard about the Messiah or from the discussion of others in her town. Because this woman opened her heart and mind to listen to the truth, Jesus was revealing his true person, the Messiah of the prophet’s promise from the books of Moses, of the prophets and the poetic books. 

Application - Many hide their failures, sins, and faults in order to look acceptable to the world. We have tried to justify our transgressions through reasoning, through the works of religion, and through burying them deep so they will not damage us more than they already have. The lady at the well knew this kind of pain, especially from a society that specialized in pointing it out when exposed. 

Jesus knows everything about us, especially the hidden things in our hearts and lives. If we are to be free to worship God in Spirit and Truth, we must be like the woman and be honest and forthright. As well, let Jesus peel back the layers of the onion skins of life, he will expose what is at the root, the center of our heart and soul. God is looking to set us free from sin and the trappings of man-made worship. His desire is for us to worship from the heart of love and thanksgiving to God, to the Son, to the Holy Spirit. 

In obedience and submission of our lives to his Spirit, will and calling, we can be filled from the well of living water. This is the kind of worship that God desires and we need to give. As Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come...” Let us worship Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Let us give thanks and worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

  I’m again including the ABC’s of salvation (JD Farag). Please, Jesus, God the Son, came to this world to save all who would believe and trust in him. He desires to reveal himself to you, He is the Light that overcomes the darkness of this lawless world. If you haven’t asked him to be your Lord and Savior, today could be that day.

 First, A - Admit that you are a sinner. This is where that godly sorrow leads to genuine repentance for sinning against a righteous God and there is a change of heart, we change our mind and God changes our hearts and regenerates us from the inside out. Romans 3:10 - As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (We are all born sinners which is why we must be born spiritually in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven). Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The bad news is that the wages of sin is death, in other words our sin means that we have been given a death sentence, we have the death penalty hanging over our heads, that's the bad news. But here's the good news: The good news is that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Second,

 B - Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is trusting with all of your heart that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. Romans 10:9-10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Third, 

C - Call upon the name of the Lord. Every single person who ever lived since Adam will bend their knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Romans 14:11 - For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." Don't wait until later — do this now. Romans 10:13 - For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." "O God, I am a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe that He died on the cross for my sin and that He was buried and You raised Him to life. I have decided to place my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, trusting only in His shed blood as sufficient to save my soul and to take me to heaven. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen."

Please share this with someone this week, the Lord knows that we and they need it.

If you would like other lessons, please go to http://pmdinhisservice.blogspot.com 

Until next week, In His Service Mike Davis

 

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