Sermon Central
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Learning To Sit By Wells
Contributed by Kevin Hall on Feb 15, 2010 (message contributor)
Summary: Seeing the Church as a resource rather than a social group
“ Learning to Sit by Wells “
John 4: 1-15
If you have your Bibles this morning I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of John 4: 1-15
John 4: 1-15
Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He needed to go through Samaria.5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 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 Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 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?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
You know there is nothing like a cold glass of water!!!!
Have you ever done something stupid ? No I mean stupid?
Illustration: of YOU doing something stupid
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
Find Jesus in a human dilemma. Thirst. Have you ever been thirsty? Each one of us has!!!
- Jesus was just as human as you and I
- But there is nothing like a cold glass of water
She answers “How is it for you , being a Jew , ask me for a drink, I am a Samaritan woman, for Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.”
3 Truths about this woman
1.)Samaritan – hated race, part Jew/Gentile, despised
2.) Known to be living in sin
3.) Met her in a public place
A Jewish man wouldn’t been caught dead speaking to this woman under these circumstances.
Jesus replied “If you only knew, of the Gift that God has for you , and who I am , you instead would ask me for Living water.”
- This was at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry people had no idea who He was.
- He Used parables- stories that used common things that common people could understand.
- Used parallels b/t physical activity and spit acttivity
- Jesus said “ If you only knew of the Gift”- trans. Good News, the gospel. Samaritans only had the Pentateuch teaching, and limited knowledge of a Messiah from Isaiah’s teaching.
She said “ But Sir you have nothing to draw with and this well is deep”
- Jacob’s Well wasn’t spring fed, water run off
- This well was recognized by all people, place of meeting, a place of community a gathering place,
it was a significant part of daily life,
it was a Landmark in peoples life.
A well is a Landmark – a refuge for people who are thirsty.
It wasn’t by accident that Jesus came to the well that day, it was an appointed day for this woman to connect with Jesus.
I believe this day was a moment for the Church,…..when God revealed the mission of what the true Church of God was intended for…… to be that well , that Landmark, for dry and thirsty people.
Landmark. That point in my life where I came to Christ ___/__/__
See Jesus, met this woman at a Landmark
But the woman couldn’t fathom how to get that Living Water on her own.
Church, she confused the two types of water, probably because no one had ever talked to her about her Spiritual condition!!
No one had ever taken the time to talk to her about that spiritual thirst.
