“Searching to Reach Out”
2003 Searching Series
John 4:1-26
September 21, 2003
Purpose: Everyone wants to feel like they are making a difference, By reaching up to the Source, reaching in to our need, and then, reaching out to others, we can experience God’s reaching out for us.
Introduction
I’d like to introduce you to a woman, who is a lot like us. All of us before we come face to face with our Creator are like this woman. In listening to her story, we discover our own story. As we see her receive something from God, we ourselves learn to receive from God. I want to introduce you to this woman at the well.
She didn’t know she was in need of Christ, she didn’t know that she was dying of thirst. She didn’t realize that her life was parched, wilted, and dry. She didn’t realize what she was hungering for, or that she was longing for a true intimate partner, Jesus, the One who created her. All she knew was an unending sense of dissatisfaction, unsettledness, and uneasiness.
She had five husbands, each one different than the others, each one offering her a different balm or medicine to soothe her itch, to ease her anxiety. But none of them worked out. One maybe left her for another woman, another complained of irreconcilable differences. Still another she left because of the constant fighting. But though the excuses were all different, what was the same was her loneliness…her awful state of loneliness.
It’s interesting to note that she came to the well alone, in the heat of the day, when it was so hot she knew no one else would be there. She came to draw water from Jacob’s well, which was deep. What she found was the Spring of Living Water, Jacob’s Creator, who touched her in the depths, the part of her heart no one else saw. In fact it was a part of her scarcely known by her herself. (source: adapted from “Christ the Living Waters” by Lynwood Morriss Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Oak Park)
Let’s look at how our Lord brought her to that place, the place where he meets us in the deepest, most tender parts of our hearts, the place most wounded, most unredeemed as we continue our search…
A. An Invitation to Reach Up To The Source (verses 7-10)
In verses 7-8, we see that Jesus sees her as someone who he can receive ministry from and minister to. Even with her past, when though he was tired, Jesus invited her, a woman, a Samaritan woman, a Samaritan woman with a past, to minister to Him.
But we see in v. 9, that in her searching, in her woundedness, she saw him as only another Jew, another person to reject her.
But before we judge her too quickly, don’t we do that as well?
For many who find themselves searching, we look at our past and think that there is no way we can minister to ourselves, definitely not minister to others, and definitely we feel disqualified to minister to the Lord and His church.
But Jesus tells her and us something different. In the first six verses of this chapter, we see Jesus leaving Judea to go back home to Galilee because of a brewing conflict with the Pharisees over John the Baptist. To travel from Judea to Galilee took about three days on foot. But for most Jews it took longer, because they wouldn’t travel through Samaria. So, it was a shock for this woman at the well, to see this Jew. In fact, she could have probably counted on one hand the number of times she had met a Jew near her hometown.
What does Jesus tell her and us? Just as he told that woman at the well, we may think that we are unworthy, we may think that our past holds you back, we may think that because of our traditions, because of our hurts, because of our sin…we are unable to serve and be served…but Jesus says I’m not like anyone you have known before…I offer a living water…I offer what you are searching for, I have what you so desperately want, I’m am ready and willing to give. Although we may feel unworthy, the gift of God is available if we reach up for it.
In v.10 Jesus basically says, if you knew who I am, you would have asked me for the balm that quenches your thirst, heals your hurts, and binds your wounds. I have what you’ve been searching for…reach up for it, and you will never thirst again.
And once we’ve reached up, then there’s an almost automatic sense to reach in…
B. An Invitation to Reach In To Our Need For Healing
I’m sure you’ve heard the story that Samaritans and Jews were bitter rivals. Each one claimed the distinction of being the people of God. The Samaritans believed that their land, and especially the mountain in which they worshipped, was particularly holy and set apart for God. They clung tenaciously to the traditions of their forefathers, hallowing the places where God appeared in the past. Hence, Jacob, the father of Jews and Samaritans, was an important figure. His land, his well, which he had dug so long ago, was seen as special.
The Samaritan woman says to the Lord I have my traditions, my culture, my history, even Jacob’s well to draw water from. What do you have? You, who don’t even have anything to draw water from, what can you give to me? Like many of us, even in the midst of the search, she was holding on to what she had, what she knew, what she thought would satisfy her.
Some of us have missed great blessings because we’re so committed to quenching our thirst in our tried and true ways. We run to unhealthy relationships, habits, and vices, because we know of nothing different.
But Jesus invited offered, and indeed offers, something different. As we reach into ourselves and find the needs that we truly have, Jesus invites us to drink from that which would truly satisfy every single need.
What Jesus said to the woman, he says to us...in v.13-14 he tells her that the old ways don’t work. She tried to find relief over and over again. Married five times, and now living with a guy because she didn’t want the feel the hurt and pain of being divorced yet once again, she knew that her way wasn’t working! She was tied down to her needs, and they had the potential to keep her from the very need she longed for the most.
We, too, often come back and back. We get high, and for awhile we forget our problems, or find courage to take a risk and see it pay off. We do it repeatedly, but each time the return for our investment diminishes. So we try harder and harder, doing it over and over, but instead of relief, we get more and more dry, and thus more and more thirsty.
How many times have we searched and tried to get relief from the same things that no longer work. Even good things, like quiet times, or going to church, or attending that Bible study, or trying devotions, whatever…seem empty when we are not honest with what we are searching to find, the needs that are deep down within us.
Jesus invites us to not only see Him for who he really is, but also to see who we really are in the process. He invites us to let go of our ways of searching to find satisfaction, to give up our attempts to draw water, in order to rely upon the Living Well, Jesus Christ instead!
Sometimes he does it through the Holy Spirit. Other times he works through people, members of the body of Christ coming up to us, in the power of the Spirit, sometimes with the gifts of the Spirit, to speak that truth into our lives. He pursues us, seeking us out, calling to us, until we are ready to open that area of our lives.
In verses 11-14, Jesus invites the women to let go of her inferior thirst quenchers. In the midst of her searching, he told her she needed to reach up the never-ending Source, and Jesus got her attention so that she could reach in and find her true needs that needed to be satisfied.
Which leads us to our last point this morning. As we reach up and reach in, we are also called to reach out.
B. An Invitation to Reach Out to One Another
We didn’t read it this morning, but if you still have your Bibles open, I invite you to look at John 4:39 and following. While for many the story ends at v.26, I believe the most crucial part of the story is found in these verses.
To bring you up to speed, the disciples have come back from their grocery shopping and they were shocked to find that Jesus had not only spoken to a woman, but a Samaritan women at that, but none of them dared to say a word, except urging Jesus to eat.
And in the meantime, the Samaritan women went back into town and told everyone she could find, especially the men of the village that this Jesus was someone they ought to go see and hear.
Starting with v. 39… “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed for two days. And because of his words, many more became believers…”
Hear me closely church, we can be the busiest church, the one with all the new and emerging ministries, the one that reaches out to our community, at home and abroad, in many astounding and creative ways, but if we don’t do it out of a genuine experience of Jesus Christ in our lives, it’s futile, it’s worthless.
She reached out…why?
Because she had been invited to reach up for the Source that would never run dry and to reach in and find the real need that needed to be healed. And once she found that healing, she just couldn’t keep it to herself and because she shared many believed and were saved.
Conclusion & Altar Call
The conclusion I leave with you this morning then is the same message that Jesus gave to that woman at the well…
Do you need to reach up to the Source that gives everlasting water? Nothing else will satisfy.
Do you need to reach in and be honest with the needs found there? Once we accept and claim our need, Jesus is ready and willing to forgive it, heal it, and
satisfy it.. In fact, he wants to eternally heal those hurts we bring that bind us.
Do you want to reach out with the good news that you’ve experienced? We can make that difference a reality, when we share what Christ has done for us with others in our actions as well as our verbal testimony.
This morning, as we sing our last hymn together, I want to invite you to come and invite Jesus to your well. Our last hymn talks about wanting to be a Christian that is more loving, more holy, more like Jesus…but it also talks about the state of our hearts.
Where is your heart at this morning?
Do you find yourself at that well time and time again finding no relief?
Do you find that instead of turning to the Source of that well, you’re turning in any other
direction possible?
Do you find that the need deep down within you needs the everlasting “thirst-quencher” that only Christ can give?
Do you feel the need in your search to reach out to others in their search?
Do you need to feel your relationship with Christ growing closer this morning?
If so I invite you to come forward as we sing. If you’re unable to kneel just come and sit in the front pew. Make a statement to those gathered that you want to take advantage of Christ’s offer of living water,
that you want to reach up to your Source, meeting the One who first met you,
that you want to reach in to find your need so that it may be healed,
that you want to be touched so that you may reach out with that healing message to others.
As we sing this final song, will you come forward this morning and take Jesus up on his offer?
#402 – Lord, I Want to Be A Christian
Benediction
Dear Heavenly Father,
In our walk and journey with you, there have been times when we have been near. There have been times, by our own doing, that we have been far.
Lord, we want to be more loving, more holy, more like Jesus to the world we find ourselves in.
We want reach out in your grace and mercy, but we often feel hindered by our own past, the
baggage of sin, unforgiveness, feelings of inadequacy, feelings of loneliness…
Help us…help us to feel your living water surging through us…help us to experience your love
in new and life-giving experiences, help us to make that difference happen in the lives of others as we continually draw upon the well that will never run dry for our nourishment.
Help us as we reach up to the Source, reach in for our need to be healed, and reach out with that healing message to others.
In the name of the One who is Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer in all that we live and breathe…Amen.
Note: If for any reason you did not find this sermon helpful, please let me know by contacting me at gb@clergy.net. Your input will help me personally and my congregation as I learn professionally.
