Samaritans Are People, Too!
John 4:4-42
April 28, 2002
Introduction
Last Tuesday, I went to listen to Dana Scott, sister of Rachel Scott, who was one of the students killed at Columbine High School.
And one of the points of Miss Scott’s message was that we need to be more compassionate toward those who are not like us, such as the social rejects, or physically challenged.
Her sister had in the last couple of years become convinced that God wanted her to reach out to these some people. In the end, it was two of these people who took her life.
That message convicted me, and I asked God to show me what I could do in the same area, and how I could communicate that conviction to you today.
And He brought to mind the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4.
The story is familiar to most of us, but allow me to recap it just a bit. We are going to be reading portions of it, but I want to just give you a quick overview.
Jesus was on his way back to Galilee and felt like He should go through Samaria. When they got to a town called Sychar, the disciples went to find some food.
In the meantime, Jesus sits at Jacob’s well, and strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan woman.
Now in those times, this was not a good deal to most people.
First of all, she was a woman. The prevailing attitude of Jewish men was that it was almost better to be a dog than a woman. This was not Scriptural, but that was the attitude.
Next, and probably even more important, she was a Samaritan.
Samaritans were “half-breed” Jews who intermarried with the people of the region who were brought there by the king of Assyria during the exile of Israel.
Jews hated Samaritans and the feeling was mutual.
And not only was she a woman, not only was she a Samaritan, but she was also a sinner. Three strikes and you’re out, right?
Not with Jesus. And hopefully not with us.
Today I want to show us how we can reach out to those who are outside our normal circles, and I want to do that by showing the example of Jesus.
Please turn with me to John 4. If you are using one of the Bibles in the seats, this can be found on page 752.
I. Set aside your prejudices.
I would be so bold to say that most, if not all of us operate under certain prejudices, though some less than others.
Jesus was under no such restraint. He was a Jew, but that didn’t stop Him from ministering to many different people, including even a centurion from the hated Roman army.
Here we see Him talking with a Samaritan. Follow along as I read verses 4-10.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 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. )
10 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."
I would urge you to remember three principles when it comes to shedding your prejudices.
A. Remember that it’s not the color of the skin, but the color of the blood.
It’s not your gender, but your image. We are made in the image of God, regardless of sex, age, or current lifestyle or religion.
Jesus shed His blood, and I can’t find anything in Scripture that says He shed it only for Americans or Israelites. The Bible says that God so loved the world. And last I checked that included all the continents and the people on them.
We all bleed red, and so did Jesus.
Second,
B. Remember the root issue – salvation.
This relates to the last point, but let me hammer it home here.
People of all races and lifestyles need Jesus. They are not exempt. The issue is not where they come from or how they dress (or how we dress, for that matter).
They might look good and smell good, and even go to church, but if they don’t have not trusted Christ as their Savior, then they’ll go to an eternity in hell.
It’s no different for Samaritans.
Next,
C. Remember where you came from.
I don’t necessarily mean ethnicity, but that can play a part. Immigrants need the love of God, too.
One time in college, I was sitting at a table in the student union having some lunch, when I overheard a buddy of mine complaining about all the “furry foreigners” at our college.
I was blown away, and here’s the reason: his last name was Levondoski. You understand? He’s the descendant of foreigners! And unless you are a full-blooded Native American, you have descended from immigrants.
But what I really mean here is that we need to remember that before we came to Christ, we were enemies of God.
Enemies of God? Yes, enemies of God. The Bible says that until we became children of God we were objects of His wrath.
Yet He looked at these objects of wrath and said they were worth saving. Samaritans are worth saving, too.
So set aside your prejudices.
Along with setting aside your prejudices, you need to…
II. Speak the truth in love.
Let’s pick it up in verse 13:
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15 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."
16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17 "I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 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."
If Jesus was following certain models of evangelism, He wouldn’t have brought up the woman’s sin. He would have just told her that all she had to do was love Jesus and everything would be all right.
No need to turn from her sin, no need to die to his own desires and follow Christ.
It’s easy for us to want to avoid touchy subjects, and I am the same way.
Unfortunately for our comfort zones, Scripture talks rather specifically about sin, and its consequences.
People need to know that sin grieves God, and that the penalty for sin is an eternity in hell.
Jesus didn’t hold back. He told the woman that He knew of her sin, and didn’t apologize for it.
Let me give you some tips for telling the truth in love. First,…
A. Don’t apologize for the truth.
Pastor Paul Black points out that people try to make us feel like we need to apologize for sharing Jesus.
Well, let me tell you something. The Muslims aren’t apologizing; the Mormons aren’t apologizing; the Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t apologizing; the homosexuals aren’t apologizing; and the abortionists certainly aren’t apologizing.
We have nothing to apologize for when sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.
If anything, we need to apologize for not bringing the gospel to these people sooner, amen?
If the Bible is right, and it is, then we have the news that people need to avoid hell and to enjoy forgiveness and a full life here on earth, and eternity in heaven.
Folks, don’t apologize for sharing the good news!
B. Don’t ignore sin that needs to be addressed.
I’m not saying that we should be ready to list their sins, but if asked, you should be ready to tell them how Scripture deals with that sin or whatever.
If someone is living a sinful lifestyle they need to know that, and not just that it’s sinful, but that Jesus offers freedom from that sin.
But I want to caution you to keep in mind that we cannot expect Christian behavior from non-Christian people.
Too often we want non-Christians to behave like Christians.
But guess what, folks! You cannot expect spiritual behavior from those who don’t know Christ.
C. Keep your nose below your eyes.
In other words, don’t get your nose stuck up in the air, looking down on others with some air of superiority.
Look at verse 27:
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
The implication here is that they wanted to ask that, but didn’t.
You could almost imagine what they were thinking: “Why were you talking to her, for crying out loud! She’s a woman – worse than that, she’s a Samaritan woman.”
If they had known about her home life, they would have gone ballistic!
Let me say this as nicely as I can. You’re no better than anyone else. You might be better off, because of your relationship with Christ, but you are no better.
Think of that when dealing with Samaritans.
So set aside your prejudices, speak the truth in love, and thirdly,…
III. Be available and be ready.
Let’s pick it up down in verse 31:
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, `Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying `One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
The point here is that there are plenty of opportunities to tell someone about the salvation available in Jesus, and see people come to Christ.
There are people out there right this moment who are ready to trust Christ as their Savior. But someone needs to tell them.
I hope that you will go out and try to find some of them. Tell them the good news or get me in contact with them, and I’ll tell them.
Here are some ways to reach out to the Samaritans in our area.
A. Identify and pray for the Samaritans around us.
Now obviously, you don’t walk up to a person and say, “Pardon me, sir, but would you consider yourself a Samaritan? Because I sure would.”
What I mean is to look around and see the people being rejected by our society.
Maybe it’s the skid row bum; maybe it’s the poor person or the single mother or father using food stamps at the grocery store.
Maybe it’s the student who dresses differently to get attention.
Depending on your circles of influence, maybe it’s the rich person who has no real friends.
Maybe it’s the geek with all the calculators and pencil protectors.
Maybe it’s just the short skinny kid who gets picked on at school.
Find them and start praying for them. Pray that God would open their hearts to the good news of Christ.
And here’s the hard part. Pray that God would allow you the opportunity to share Jesus with that person or persons.
Ouch. It’s a little different when you actually interact with people, isn’t it?
Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.
Pray for the opportunity to influence and impact Samaritans.
B. Welcome them into our fellowship.
It used to be that people came to church just because the doors were open. Well, that just doesn’t work anymore.
People need to be invited to church, and they need to see that church has something to offer.
Not just in the way of a lively service, but in the way lives are changed by the Word of God.
Let me ask you a quick question, but it’s very important: what is the purpose of Scripture?
Some of you immediately thought of 2 Timothy 3:16, where it says that the Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. And that is very close. But these are just the means to the end.
Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church in California, reminds us that the purpose of Scripture is to change lives.
The Bible doesn’t just exist to inform us about God, it exists to transform us to be godly, exhibiting Christlike behavior.
And when people are being transformed by the Word of God, it is easy to invite others, and it is easy for people to see that we have something to offer.
But they need to be invited. Invited to come just as they are. Don’t try to get them all gussied up. Bring them just as they are.
A Methodist church tried to get a man to attend, but he never did.
"Why don’t you come?" the minister asked, and the man finally admitted it was because he didn’t have proper clothes.
So a member of the congregation took him to a clothing store and got him a nice suit, shirt, tie, and shoes.
But on the following Sunday, he still did not show up.
So the minister visited him again and asked him why he didn’t come.
"When I got dressed up in my new suit," the man explained, "I looked so good I decided to go to the Episcopal church."
Get the picture? We don’t have a dress code here, so don’t impose one on people.
Next,…
C. Help them find opportunities to advance.
I’m talking about advancing spiritually.
Jesus could have just left the woman at the well hanging with the knowledge that He knew about her sinfulness.
But he went on to say that He was the Messiah, and then after the townspeople came out to see this guy, He stuck around a couple days, and a bunch of them put their faith in Him.
He stuck around to help them advance spiritually. And as we look around to those who could use a hand-up spiritually, we need to realize that it takes time and effort.
Remember, Samaritans are people too. And in ministering to them we need to set aside our prejudices, speak the truth in love, and be ready and available.
Conclusion
Jesus seems to have had a special place in His heart for the Samaritans.
He specifically mentions them in Acts 1:8, when Jesus mentions that the Holy Spirit will give the disciples power to be His witnesses to Judea and Samaria.
In Acts 8 – Philip ends up with a revival Samaria, before God told Him to visit with the Ethiopian treasurer.
God loves Samaritans. So should we.
So now what? What are you going to do with this message? I beg of you not to do what we usually do with messages, myself included.
I am going to ask for a very specific response here.
I want you to commit to praying for and actively seeking to minister to Samaritans.
Before we finish, I want to take a few seconds and ask you to come before God and ask Him to give you the name of a Samaritan He wants you to minister to.
And if no name comes to mind, ask Him to put someone in your path.
This is not easy, I know. But if we truly want to impact our area for Christ, than we have to do our part.
And we do that be being active in reaching out to those outside the family of God.
If you are willing to become active in reaching out to Samaritans, I want you to mark that on your response cards. Write a note on the back that says Samaritans, and I’ll know what you mean.
And I will be praying for you, helping whenever I can, and holding you accountable by asking you if God has opened any doors for you, and what you’re doing with the opportunities coming your way.
I want to caution you that not everyone will respond as the Samaritan woman and the rest of her village. But we need to give it a try, and trust God for the results.
Shall we pray.
