The unexpected is the source of so much of the joy of life. Our
three year old granddaughter, Jennifer, was praying at the table a
couple of weeks ago. I noticed she was going faster than usual, and
she came to the end saying, "In Jesus name, amen." Then she
shouted, "I win." It was so unexpected that we were all shocked
into laughter, and we realized at that point, she and Jason had a
thing going as to who could finish first. It was a whole new concept
to me, the concept of competitive prayer.
We expected the commonplace, and we were surprised by the
unexpected. God does this a lot, as you study His handiwork. God
has so designed natural life that it can only exist by means of the
exceptional and the unexpected. It is a law of nature that as a
liquid cools its density increases, and it gets heavier. But is water
followed this law, the ice that formed on the top of lakes would sink
to the bottom, and eventually the whole lake would be solid ice. But
fortunately, water is an exception to this law. It is expands when it
freezes, and ice becomes lighter than water, and it floats. If God
had not made water an exception, life would be greatly limited on
this planet, and may have been impossible.
It is surprising how many exceptions are necessary for life on
earth. If the law of gravity had no exceptions, the heavy gas would
be at the bottom, and the lighter gas at the top. This would mean
the whole earth would be under a layer of carbon dioxide, and this
would make life as we know it impossible. But the law of gravity is
defied by the law of diffusion of gases, and so oxygen can be available
for all of life on the surface of the earth.
God is not a legalist, even in His laws for governing the universe.
He has variety and flexibility, and unique unexpected exceptions.
Beware of locking God in and saying, He always does this, or never
does that. God is the God of surprises, and the God of the
unexpected. Those who study any aspect of His creation soon learn
this, and it is true in the study of His Word as well. No where is this
more evident than in John chapter 4, where we see the encounter of
Jesus with the woman at the well. It is literally loaded with
exceptions and surprises. Let's look at some of them to get the
flavor of the whole passage.
1. Ordinarily you run to success, but this text tells us Jesus had to
flee from it. His disciples were baptizing more people than John the
Baptist. His movement was growing like wildfire, and so he packed
up and left. A very unexpected reaction to success, but he had to
escape the conflict this was going to produce with the Pharisees.
His time was not yet, and so he fled success.
2. Also unusual is the verse which tells us Jesus did not baptize
people. John did, but Jesus let His disciples do the baptizing. As
far as we know, Jesus never baptized anyone, and that is surprising.
3. Jesus took the route to Galilee that was the unusual route. Most
Jews went around Samaria because of the hostility of these two
peoples. Jesus is the exception, and He takes the unexpected way,
right through this alien territory.
4. His disciples go into town to buy food, which is a surprise,
because, as the woman at the well says in verse 9, the Jews do not
associate with the Samaritans. Here is another exception.
5. The woman of Samaria is one surprise after another. She is the
only woman in the Bible, that we know of, who had five husbands,
and the only one we know of who was living with a man out of
wedlock. This may not be uncommon in our day, but it was the
unusual and unexpected than. Jesus only took one trip through
Samaria, and He runs into the only woman with her particular
record.
6. It was a surprise that anybody would be at the well at high noon.
This is the hottest part of the day. Most would come in the cool of
the morning or evening, but she was there at the unexpected time.
7. It was unexpected that a rabbi would talk to any woman in
public. But here we are surprised, for Jesus not only talks with her,
He shares with her the deepest insights into the nature of God. He
gives her the clearest revelation of who He is, as the Messiah.
You would expect a teacher of the caliber of Jesus to reveal His
most profound truths to the highest leaders of the land, or at least
some leaders in some formal setting. But Jesus is full of surprises,
and He gives this lowly nobody insights of the greatest depth.
There is no rule to cover this. This is just another great exception.
8. Finally, you do not expect a woman to be one of the first
successful witnesses, but her testimony led crowds of Samaritans to
believe in Jesus, and become His disciples. Jesus did not chose any
woman to be one of the twelve, but long before any of the twelve
were effective evangelists, this woman led a multitude to Jesus.
This whole account is an exception to the rule. When Jesus sent
out His twelve, we read that He gave them these instructions in
Matt. 10:5-6, "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of
the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel." Here He is
doing the very thing He forbids them to do, and by so doing, He has
the biggest harvest of fruit He ever had in His ministry. The bottom
line of all this is, expect the unexpected when you follow Jesus. The
disciples of Jesus never expected to see Him talking with a woman.
Verse 27 implies they were embarrassed by the whole scene. It was
a surprise, and so unexpected, and they could not handle this
exceptional situation. The text tells us, "No one asked what do you
want, or why are you talking with her?" Their minds were full of
questions, but they were shocked into silence, and did not know
how to deal with this unique situations.
They were not expecting the unexpected, nor were they open to
the unusual and exceptional. This is one of the basic principles of
evangelism, and they had to learn it, and we have to learn it, to be
effective tools for Christ. After all, if Jesus sent His church into all
the world to make disciples, then He expects His church to be ready
for an infinite variety of possibilities. My father use to say, "It
doesn't take all kinds to make a world, but we've got them
anyway." We have to face reality and recognize, the world we are
trying to reach is full of diversity, variety, and the unusual. If you
do not expect the unexpected, you will be closed to both God and
the world He wants you to reach. Part of what it means to walk in
the spirit is to expect the unexpected.
Jesus expected prostitutes, tax collectors, and people that nobody
else ever dreamed of reaching, to respond to the Gospel, and
become a part of the kingdom of God. Jesus expected that this
Samaritan woman would respond to His acceptance, and that the
kingdom of God would be extended into territory that no Jew
would ever even try to reach. In Acts 1:8 we read that Jesus said to
His Apostles, "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Do you think the
Apostles would have taken that serious, that they were to witness in
Samaria, unless they had seen with their own eyes the results of this
encounter with the woman of Samaria? They had to be eye
witnesses of this exceptional, and totally unexpected event, or they
never would have been able to go to Samaria with any expectation
at all. The result is, in Acts 8 we read that Philip had a marvelous
ministry in Samaria. And Peter and John preached the Gospel in
many Samaritan villages.
My point is, this never would have happened, and all the
evangelism that took place, and all the lives of the Samaritans
changed forever, never would have happened had Jesus not
prepared the way by helping His disciples learn to expect the
unexpected. They were slow learners, for He taught them to expect
the cross and resurrection too, but they were not open to it, and had
to learn the hard way. One of the main reasons why many people
are not evangelized is because of Christians who have never learned
to expect the unexpected. Almost every pastor who has been in the
ministry any length of time could tell a story similar to that of Dr.
Dino Pedrone, who pastored in Pennsylvania.
A woman came to him for counseling, and in the course of their
conversation he asked her about her husband. She said he was a
good man, but he was not a Christian. When the pastor asked if he
could come and talk to him about the Lord, she said it wouldn't do
any good, for he will never become a Christian. The next Saturday
he went to see the husband. He discovered that though he was hard
and indifferent to spiritual things in relation to his wife, he was
hungry to know God. The wife was shocked when her husband
opened his heart to Christ. Soon he was baptized and a part of the
church.
The next time this wife came for counseling, he asked about her
children. She told him she had a son who was a rebel, and was
always in trouble. He asked if anybody had ever talked to him
about the Lord. She said that she knew her son would never trust
in Christ. The next Tuesday some people from the church called on
the son, and her son received Christ. After that she came to the
pastor with a list of her relatives. Not all of them responded to the
Gospel, but some did, because she had finally learned to expect the
unexpected.
Until we learn this basic principle, we determine what God will,
or will not do, and we never even try that which seems unusual, for
we do not give the exceptional a chance to happen. This is what
quenching the spirit is all about. We refuse to be available to the
Holy Spirit to do what is unusual and unexpected. We are just like
the Jews who rejected Jesus. They expected a Messiah like David
the warrior, who would lead them to victory over Rome. They did
not expect the unexpected, and that is exactly what Jesus was. Jesus
did the unexpected, because He expected God to use the unexpected
to change lives, and God honored that expectation. When we talk
about being like Jesus, let us not forget this aspect of His character.
God moves in mysterious ways, was not just a saying or a song
for Jesus, it was a philosophy of life. He did not live in conformity
to what was expected, but in His passion for people, He reached out
to touch them any way He could, and to let them know they were
loved, and were invited to be a part of the family of God. The
world seeks to force us into its mold. It says conform and avoid
being an exception. But the call of Christ is to be a non-conformer.
Be different, be unusual, and be the exception. Be open to the
unexpected, for these are the people God uses to open up new
worlds, as Jesus opened up the world of Samaria to the kingdom of
God.
One of the most Christian nations of the world today is Korea.
The largest church in the world is there, along with many other
great churches. It all began with an exception. Robert J. Thomas
was a Welshman working in China for the Scottish Bible Society.
He learned that the Korean language was based on the Chinese, and
so the Korean intellectuals could read the Chinese Bible. Nobody
had any interest in Korea, but he was determined these people
would have the Bible. He got on an American ship, the General
Sherman, and sailed to Korea. When the ship got near the port a
fight broke out with a Korean ship, and the American vessel was set
on fire, and all the passengers were killed. Thomas was so
determined to finish his mission that he took some of his Bibles, and
leaped into the sea. He struggled to the shore, and staggered out of
the water. He thrust the Bibles into the hand of the Koreans, who
clubbed him to death. That is how the Gospel first came to Korea
in 1866. It was not a very promising beginning, nobody would
expect anything to come of such a tragic event. But God used this
exceptional event to produce one of the greatest harvests of history.
William Carrey said, "Attempt great things for God and expect
great things from God." If you never attempt to do anything but the
usual and the expected, you will never know if God will use you to
do the unexpected. We have to stop thinking that our friends and
neighbors are too unusual and different, and use that to justify our
refusal to witness to them. We must expect the unexpected and
share the good news with them. If the disciples would have watched
this encounter of Jesus and the woman at the well, you can count on
it, they would have been betting that Jesus would have had and
easier time getting Satan to make stones into bread, than of getting
this woman to supply Him with water. She was there at noon in the
hot Sun because she was not welcome by the other women who
came at cooler times. She was not a very sociable person, and to
serve a Jew was not likely her cup of tea. She just was not a likely
prospect for getting a cup of cold water, let alone a prospect for
evangelism. She would not have gotten a single vote if Jesus would
have operated on the majority rule, and taken a vote on it.
Jesus had passion, and he had a procedure, and now we want to
look at-
HIS PROSPECTS FOR EVANGELISM.
For Jesus, every person who crossed His path was a prospect for
evangelism. Jesus, like the Good Samaritan, considered every man
he met with a need as His neighbor. Now Jesus confronts a bad
Samaritan, and He has the same spirit. This woman at the well was
robbed by Satan, and beaten out of a life of love. She was as
helpless to help herself as was the man who was beaten who was
found by the Good Samaritan. Jesus is now stopping to help this
bad Samaritan because she is His neighbor.
One of the most amazing things about this great rescue is that it
was all done by words. There is no miracle in this passage
anywhere. Jesus could have had her jar float down into the well,
and return without the use of a rope. He could have added the
Cana touch, and made the water turn to wine. He could have done
all sorts of miracles to convince her He was the Messiah, but He
needed none of that. The Jews saw wonder after wonder, and still
would not believe. But here is one of the so-called heretic
Samaritans, and she only hears the words of Jesus, and does not see
a single wonder of His miracle working power, and she believes.
The masses came and believed as well, with no record of a single
miracle in the two days He stayed there. Note verse 41, "And
because of His words many more became believers." They went on
to give Jesus the title, the Savior of the World in verse 42.
This, from Samaritan people who were enemies of the Jews, and
on whom James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven to
destroy. No wonder Jesus rebuked them, for He did not see the
Samaritans as His enemies. He saw them as prospects for
evangelism. He did not write them off, for He expected the
unexpected. He expected these despised people to become a part of
His family. The day you label any person of any class or race as
being no prospect for evangelism, is the day you cease to have the
mind of Christ. This whole account, which is so unusual and full of
the unexpected, is designed to make it clear to Christians all
through history that our Lord expects us to expect the unexpected,
and never write anyone off as a prospect for evangelism.
This is the Jesus version of Ripley's Believe It Or Not. It is
mission impossible. This passage of scripture is surely designed to
demonstrate that the Gospel is for everybody. There is no such thing
as a hopeless case. The lease likely people in this world can become
children of God, and can become leaders in the kingdom, as did this
Samaritan sinner.
Alfred Noble was a Swedish chemist who made a fortune by
inventing powerful explosives, which he sold to governments
around the world, so they could make weapons and blow people
and things to pieces. He was not the kind of man you would expect
to have compassion for suffering humanity. But one day his
brother died, and the newspaper by accident published his obituary
instead of his brothers. It is not often a man gets to read his own
obituary. It had a shocking impact on Alfred, for he was identified
in the obituary as the man who made a fortune by enabling armies
to achieve new levels of mass destruction. He was going to be
remembered as a merchant of death, and he hated it.
So he took his fortune and established awards to be given in
various fields to people whose work was a benefit to humanity.
Today he is remembered, not as the destroyer, but as a benefactor
to man. The man least likely to be so remembered is so
remembered. The point is, people can change, and time can change,
and circumstances can change, and, therefore, anything is possible.
So let's stop assuming that Samaritans are not good prospects for
evangelism.
Whom do you never expect to be a child of God? Whom do you
never expect to be used of God to touch others for Christ? What is
the most unexpected change Christ could make in another's life by
your influence? Faith is simply expecting that these unexpected
events can become a reality. Thoreau wrote, "I learned this, at
least, by my experiment: That if one advances confidently in the
direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has
imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common
hours."
Do you have any dreams about what might be if the world was
more hopeful, if life was more simple, if you had more control of
what happens? Don't wait for life to level off and even out, but go
for your dream now, expecting the unexpected. Have you ever
wondered why it is why collectors have so many rare coins, or
stamps, or bottles? If they are so rare and unusual, how can
anybody have a collection of them? It is because they are people
who go through life looking for the unusual. They expect the
unexpected. The non-collector walks pass treasures all the time
and does not see them. Collectors see them, because they expect to
see them, and they are always looking for the unlikely.
Our environment is loaded with people who are lost. They are
hidden treasures, like this sinful Samaritan woman, but we pass
them by, because we don't expect Christ to ever find these lost
sheep, at least not through us. As long as we think this way, we will
be right, and we get what we expect-nothing. The only way we will
ever be used to win the lost is to live with the mind of Christ, a mind
that expected the unexpected.
We are not trying to deny the reality of Murphy's Law, for it to
is a part of life. Who of us has not decided to watch a TV series,
which we haven't watched for 6 months, only to discover it is a
rerun of the one other time we decided to watch it? Or who of us
has not been on vacation watching a program, only to suddenly see
it end with the words, to be continued? No setting is so solemn that
it scares away Murphy's Law. Stewart Briscoe told of one of his
associate pastors at the funeral of a war veteran. The pastor was to
lead his military friends out through a side door, but he chose the
wrong door. With military precision they marched into a storage
closet in full view of mourners. The effect was somewhat marred
when they had to beat a hasty retreat in confusion. The unexpected
is not always good, and what we would hope for, but to have the
mind of Christ we need to expect good unexpected things to happen,
when we care about every person we meet, enough to share the love
of Christ.
You will never meet a person who does not need Christ. You
will never meet a person for whom Christ did not die. You will
never meet a person who cannot come to Christ. Therefore, no
matter how unlikely it is, expect people to be won into the kingdom
of God, and expect God to use you to be a key factor in making that
happen. So let us go into our Samaria with the mind of Christ, and
expect the unexpected.
