Pataskala Church of the Nazarene
March 14, 2010
A Meeting with the Messiah
Scripture Reading: John 4:6-7
Introduction:
One of the most significant encounters recorded of Jesus' ministry was his meeting with the Samaritan Woman at the Well.
She was known as a sinful woman who was headed to Jacob's well for a bucket of water.
I was reading Max Lucado's book, entitled: Six Hours one Friday. I found it fascinating to read chapter two of his book that dealt with this encounter.
Max Lucado recounts the story that he always wanted to stop at a plot of ground that he passed daily. "Someday I need to stop there." he told himself.
Finally that day happened and he drove under a sign that said, "Locke Hill Cemetery."
He parked his car, the darkened sky threatened rain.
He walked a lonely path looking at hundreds of tombstones.
Have you ever done that? I have!
Max says it in the way that only he can, "The fatherly oak trees arched above me, providing a ceiling for the solemn chambers. Tall grass, still wet from the morning dew, brushed my ankles.
The tombstones, though weathered and chipped , were al.ive with yesterday.
I stood on the same spot where a mother wept on a cold day some eight decades past. The tombstone simply read, "Baby Boldt - Born and died December 10, 1910."
Then I saw it. It was chiseled into a tombstone on the northern end of the cemetery. The stone marks the destination of the body of Grace Llewellen Smith. No date of birth is listed. No date of death. Just the two names of her husbands, and this epitaph:
"Sleeps, but rests not.
Loved, but was loved not.
Tried to please, but pleased not.
Died as she lived - alone."
Words of futility from a life lived in despair and loneliness.
I wondered if she wrote the words of her own epitaph, or did she just live them.
I wondered if she deserved the pain.
I wondered if she was bitter or beaten up.
I wondered if she was plain or beautiful.
I wondered why some lives are so fruitful while others are so futile.
What broke her heart?
Loved but was not loved ...
Long lonely nights.
Silence
No response from messages left.
No return to letters written.
No love exchanged for love given.
Tried to please, but pleased not ...
I can hear that hatchet of disappointment
How many times do I have to tell you? CHOP
You'll never amount to anything. CHOP CHOP
Why can't you do anything right? Chop Chop Chop.
Died as she lived - alone.
How many Grace Smiths are out there?
How many people will live in the loneliness in which they are living.
The homeless in Columbus, Ohio/Pataskala, Ohio.
How many have become victims of futility?
What about the Samaritan woman as she looks outside on a sunny day and she stoops under the weight of a water jug?
Maybe she bowed her head so she can dodge the stares of the people.
She is a Samaritan.
She knows the feeling of racism.
She's been married to five men.
Five different men/five different marriages.
Five different rejections
Five different instances of unfaithfulness.
She knows what it means to give love and not receive love in return.
The man who is in her house right now won't even give her his last name. Rejection!
On this particular day, she was going to the well at noon. Why hadn't she gone in the early morning with the other women?
Possibly she went to escape the sharp tongues of the others. Can you possibly here them?
"Here she comes."
"Have you heard? She's got a new man!"
"They say she'll sleep with anyone."
"Shhh. she's coming - she might hear us."
She comes to the water well expecting to be there by herself.
Instead, she found somebody who knew here better than she knew herself.
It doesn't tell us what position Jesus was in.
Perhaps He was sitting on the ground.
She looks at Him. She looks around. There's no one else there.
I. The Perplexing Problem
Jesus' meeting with the woman at Samaria was full of problems.
For all of us to understand this we have to understand the geography and history of Israel.
The pious Jews would not go through the land of Samaria.
Following the northern kingdom of Israel's captivity by the Assyrians in 722 BC the land was inhabited by Israelites and foreigners.
They intermarried, which was repulsive to pious Jews and therefore the pious Jews avoided Samaria.
John wrote, "Jesus had to go through Samaria." John 4:4
Already there were barriers that existed for Jesus and the woman.
1. First, there was the ethnic barrier.
Jewish people were tolerant of other races, but the Samaritans were contemptible to the pious Jews.
When the Samaritan woman recognized Jesus as a Jew when He asked her for a drink of water, she responded and said in verse 9, "How is it that You being a Jew would ask me for a drink of water ... since I am a Samaritan woman?"
2. Second, notice with me that a rabbi could not speak to a woman in public in those days. So this was a gender barrier.
Rabbis were forbidden to speak to a woman in public, so Jesus violated this barrier when He spoke to the woman.
Not only did Jesus speak to a woman, but He spoke to a known immoral woman.
3. The third barrier was that of religion.
History tells us that there was a huge chasm between the Jews and the Samaritans when it came to where they worshipped.
The Samaritans worshiped at Mt. Ebal, and the Jews worshiped at Mt. Gerizim.
II. The Master's proposal.
Jesus had the right to overlook all of these barriers.
After all He is the Messiah not only to the Jews, but to the Samaritans and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
1. I want you to see that Jesus simply asked for a drink of water.
Jesus was thirsty!
Have you ever been thirsty? I mean really thirsty!
I don’t mean the average thirst where a drink of water sounds good after a long walk or after working in the garden on a hot summer day.
I mean really -- really thirsty…
I've woke up in the middle of the night and I can always tell when I snore too much, because my mouth is completely dry.
My tongue is like sandpaper and you have to work your mouth until the saliva comes back and all you want is a drink of moisturizing water.
You know... where your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth and you have to peel your lips off of your teeth and all you can think about is water.
Joey Mora Has… an ILLUSTRATION:
In 1996, a young marine corporal named Joey Mora was standing on a platform of an aircraft carrier patrolling the Iranian Sea. Incredibly, he fell overboard.
His absence was not known for 36 hours.
A search and rescue mission began, but was given up after another 24 hours.
No one could survive in the sea without even a lifejacket after 60 hours.
His parents were notified that he was "missing and presumed dead."
The rest of the story is one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" events.
Scriptwriters would pass it up as "not believable." Four Pakistani fishermen found Joey Mora about 72 hours after he had fallen from the aircraft carrier.
He was treading water in his sleep, clinging to a makeshift floatation device made from his trousers -- a skill learned in most military survival training.
He was delirious when they pulled him into their fishing boat.
His tongue was dry and cracked and his throat parched.
Just about two years later, as he spoke with Stone Philips of NBC Dateline, he recounted an unbelievable story of will to live and survival.
Who would not give up?
He said it was God who kept him struggling to survive.
His discovery by the fishermen makes searching for a needle in a haystack a piece of cake.
The most excruciating thing of all?
Joey said that the one thought that took over his body and pounded in his brain was "Water!" [NBC Date Line: Nov. 1998]
When the woman came to the well to get water, Jesus asked for a drink.
He mentioned in verse 10, something about Living Water.
I am not talking about H2O now.
I'm talking about the "Living Water" that Jesus began to explain to her.
Application:
We come to church… surrounding by the ocean of “Living Water”
It's simply amazing today that Americans can buy all kinds of Bibles.
Pink Bibles,
Women Bibles,
Devotional
Study Bibles
Men’s Bibles
Teen Bibles and we are thirsty
and all kinds of different translation and paraphrase Bibles and yet still be thirsty.
Thirsty
We come to church sing the songs that quench our souls listen to the Scripture and the Message from behind the pulpit that hydrates our lives and we still are thirsty!
Why?
Why can’t we drink from the well that never runs dry.
Why are our souls in so many of the churches in America shriveled and dehydrated?
Physical Thirst
I want to share with you a couple of interesting facts about physical thirst.
Thirst is something that we experience when the pituitary gland secretes two hormones in the body.
One causes a physical reaction in the kidneys and the other causes the more complicated activity of the hypothalamus to send signals to the salivary glands to reduce secretions.
Wow! you probably think I'm pretty, but I'm not. I found this in my study! I didn't know this at all.
I discovered many years ago that just thinking about thirst could make you thirsty -- that is cause the hypothalamus to start talking to the salivary glands.
Being a diabetic, I have to watch my water intake.
I get thirsty and dry when my sugar goes high.
That's why I keep a glass of water here.
Physical thirst can be excruciating and dangerous.
Dehydration will get you into serious difficulty in a hurry.
I know of some people who have been hospitalized because of this.
If you have ever been really, truly thirsty then you will be much more able to connect with the meaning of thirst in a spiritual sense.
2. Jesus began to awaken the woman's conscience in the vv. 16ff.
The woman at the well was having a difficult time grasping what Jesus meant by "Living Water."
So he said, "Go, call your husband, and bring him here." v. 16
Get this, He already knew everything about her.
Don't you know that Jesus knows everything about you?
He knew the mistakes she had made.
He knew the sins she had committed.
She just simply said to Jesus, "I have no husband."
And Jesus said, 'You have said it right, for you have had five husbands and the one you live with now is not your husband." vv. 17-18
3. She immediately recognized that someone here was more then she originally thought.
v. 19 she said, "I perceive that you are a prophet."
And she began to talk about her fathers worshipping in this mountain.
This woman had tried everything else.
She was in her sixth relationship and Jesus was
Inviting her to let him be the seventh man in her life.
7 is a perfect number.
Jesus was going to be the perfect relationship in her life.
You understand - don't you - I'm not talking about a physical relationship. I'm talking about a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ.
If we want to experience the presence of God in our souls, we must come to Jesus.
If we want to know the person of God in our hearts, we must come to Jesus.
If we want to receive the power of God in our lives, we must come to Jesus.
Too often, we try to quench our thirst in all the wrong places.
We drink from the worldly well instead from the well of life, which is found in Christ.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GAIN A SPIRITUAL THIRST, THEN LISTEN TO WHAT JESUS SAYS IN (JOHN 7:37).
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."
TO GAIN A SPIRITUAL THIRST, WE MUST DESIRE GOD’S WATER.
Notice the condition that Jesus lays down. "If anyone thirsts," (v.37)
Now I thank God for that word "anyone."
Jesus plainly said if anyone wants God…a relationship with God, he could have it.
If anyone wants spiritual living, he can obtain it.
If anyone seeks God he can find Him.
3. But notice that this is specifically addressed only to those who are thirsty.
The problem with many people is, they are just not thirsty for God and spiritual living.
And tragically it shows in their spiritual lives.
You see, before we can really have a close relationship with God, we’ve got to thirst for God.
I mean we’ve got to thirst like the Psalmist who said…
"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God"(Psalm 42:1-2a).
We’ve got to cry out as David cried out…"God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1).
We must come to a point where we can get before God and say, "I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land" (Psalm 143:6).
We will never have a close relationship with God until we thirst after Him.
That is why Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."
Do you have the spiritual thirst that Jesus requires?
If not, say a silent pray and ask God to sprinkle your tongue with Holy Spirit salt..
For Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6).
Fill up your spiritual tank this morning, and walk out of here as a brand new…regenerated…Christian.
4. Jesus acknowledged Himself as the Messiah.
v. 26
"Jesus said to her, I am the Messiah who is speaking to you."
Have you heard Him speak to you?
Have you heard Him speak to your heart?
III. The woman's proclamation
After this encounter with Jesus, the Messiah, the Samaritan woman ran off the city.
She said, "I want you to come and see a man, who told me all things that I ever did: is this not the Christ?"
Suddenly her shame was gone.
Suddenly the insignificance of her life was swallowed by the significance of the moment.
Can you hear her and she runs through the street?
God is here! God has come! God cares for me!
She grabbed the first person she saw and announced her discovery, "I just talked to a man who knows everything I ever did ... and He loves me anyway!"
Why are we so quiet about the One who has done so much for us?
Why do we keep quiet about our Messiah?
Why don't we tell the world, our friends, our family what Jesus has done to change our lives?
Why am I so quiet?
This Samaritan woman had been changed.
She had a genuine encounter with the Master Jesus.
If you will carefully study her situation you will see her response reflects a radical change in her life.
She had a new concern for her life.
Did you notice what she left behind?
She left the water jug behind.
She left behind the jug that had caused the sag in her shoulders.
She left behind the burden she brought.
No longer was she concerned about the sensual things of life, but instead her life was changed forever.
TO GAIN A SPIRITUAL THIRST, WE MUST MAKE A DECISION.
Now I want you to imagine that you have been in a desert for several days.
You’ve gone totally without water.
You are almost delirious.
Your lips are parched; your skin is cracked from the heat of that broiling, boiling sun.
All of a sudden, you come upon a river.
Now I want to ask you a silly question.
What would you do?
You know what you would do.
You would drink…quench your thirst.
That is exactly what Jesus tells us to do. "Let him come to Me and drink."
It is right here that so many Christians miss it.
They come to the bank of the river, they see the water, they watch the waves lap up on the shore.
They even see the reflection of their face on the surface, but they don’t drink.
You see, God will lead you to the trough, but He won’t make you drink.
If you want to be filled, you must drink.
ILLUSTRATION:
I heard a story one time of a foreigner here in America who saw a water fountain for the first time in his life.
But he could not see how to make it work.
It had no tap, no buttons to press.
He became very angry and frustrated.
He was about to turn away when somebody pointed out to him a little sign on the bottom of the fountain that simply said, "Stoop, and drink."
Well when he stooped over he discovered that an electric eye detected his presence and the water automatically came flowing out.
You see, when we come to Jesus, He will provide us with living water…a spiritual satisfaction…a spiritual contentment that we cannot find anywhere.
CONCLUSION:
For some of you this story touches our hearts but you can't relate because you haven't been there.
But there are some here this morning who listened and related. The sermon brought to mind things you experienced in your past.
And there are some here this morning who have wondered where God is....
Let me close with this story from Max's chapter.
This could happen just about anywhere.
Joy teaches a class of under-privileged children in an inner city church.
Her class is a lively group of 9 year olds who love life and aren't afraid of God.
There is one exception, however - a timid girl by the name of Barbara.
She has a difficult home life that has left her afraid and insecure.
Joy has never heard Barbara speak.
While the other kids talked she sat quietly.
While the others sang, she was silent.
While the other laughed and giggled, she was quiet.
She was until the day Joy taught on heaven.
Joy talked about God, about Jesus.
She told the class about tearless eyes and deathless lives.
Barbara was fascinated. She wouldn't take her eyes off of Joy.
Then she raised her hand. "Mrs. Joy?" Joy was stunned, "YES, Barbara?"
"Is heaven for girls like me?"
This tiny little question in the form of a prayer reached the throne of heaven, for you see - Jesus heard and saw little Barbara and she was assured heaven was for her and others like her.
If you are here this morning and you need to know - I want you to know Jesus has prepared a place just for you in heaven.
If you are tired of living without a spiritual passion or zeal for God…
if you are tired of just going through the motions
…knowing deep down inside you are spiritually dying or dead, the Lord invites you this morning to come to Him for spiritual renewal.
His Words are simple…"if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."
Isaiah 55 in the NIV has the subtitle called Invitation for the Thirsty
“Come all you who are thirsty come to the waters”
Isaiah gives the promise in 58:11 “ The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fails.
Are you thirsty?
Are you thirsty for God?
Are you thirsty for a victorious life?
Then friends, just come to Jesus and drink, and He will fill you until you overflow and become a river of living water that will bless others as well.
His invitation has one requirement
Come whoever is thirsty!!!
