Coming Face to Face With Jesus

This morning, I'm going to tell you the story of Ted Stoddard.

Ted was a young man who was turned off by school.

He was very sloppy in appearance. He was expressionless, unattractive, and slow.

Sometimes he would simply sit in class and stare off into space,

unresponsive, which was an irritation to his teacher, Ms.

Thompson. Thompson, she enjoyed bearing down her red pen as she placed big red

X's beside his many wrong answers.

She didn't give him grace.

If only she had studied Ted's school records more carefully.

They read like this, first grade.

Ted shows promise with his work and attitude, but has a poor home situation.

Second grade, Ted could do better. Mother, seriously ill, receives little help from home.

Third grade, Ted is a good boy, but too serious.

He is a slow learner.

His mother died this year.

Fourth grade, Ted is very slow, but well behaved.

His father shows no interest whatsoever.

Christmas arrived. The children piled elaborately wrapped gifts on their teacher's desk.

Ted brought one, too. It was wrapped in brown paper and held together with scotch tape.

Miss Thompson opened each gift as the children crowded around to watch.

A gaudy rhinestone bracelet with half of the stones missing fell out of the

package that Ted brought, along with a half bottle of cheap perfume.

The children began to snicker, but she silenced them by splashing some of the

perfume on her wrist and letting them smell it.

She put the bracelet on too. At day's end, after the other children had left,

Ted came by the teacher's desk and asked, Miss Thompson, you smell just like my mother,

and my mom's bracelet looks really pretty on you.

I'm glad you like my presence And then he left the classroom Miss Thompson.

Got down on her knees, and asked God to forgive her and change her attitude.

The next day, the children were greeted by a Reformed teacher,

one committed to loving each one of them, especially the slow ones,

especially Ted. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, Ted began to show great improvement.

He actually caught up with most of the students and even passed a few.

Graduation came and went. Ms. Thompson heard nothing from Ted for a long time.

Then one day she received this note, Dear Ms. Thompson, I wanted you to be the

first to know I will be graduating third in my class.

Four years later, another note arrived. Dear Ms. Thompson, they just told me

I will be graduating with the highest honors.

I wanted you to be the first to know the university has not been easy,

but I liked it. Love, Ted.

Four years later, Dear Ms. Thompson, "'My name has just gotten longer.

"'As of today, I am Theodore Stoddard, M.D.

"'How about that?' "'Love, Ted.' "'And then a short time later,

"'she received another letter from Ted.

"'Dear Miss Thompson, "'I wanted you to be the first to know "'I'm getting married

next month, "'the 27th to be exact. "'I want you to come and sit "'where my mother would sit.',

as she were alive. You are the only family I have now.

Dad died last year. Love, Ted.

Miss Thompson attended that wedding and sat where Ted's mother would have sat.

The compassion she had shown, that young man entitled her to that privilege.

Every day we come in contact with people like Ted.

However, for some, their hurt doesn't always show on the outside.

Some people wear a mask to cover the invisible pain that exists just beneath

the surface of their lives.

Maybe your next-door neighbor, a member of your family, a spouse,

a friend, a co-worker, even the person sitting next to you right now.

Some of you here today have been living every day in a private pain that is

eating away at your heart and your soul.

The pain can be caused by many things, including personal sin,

rejection, addictions, abuse, betrayal, and many other failures,

both personal and moral.

You may be thinking, if my fake smile and facade came down and someone found

out about this, would they still care for me?

Some are even wondering, does anyone care for me?

This is what we find in a face-to-face encounter with Jesus and a Samaritan

woman by a well in Sychar in our passage this morning from John chapter 4,

John 4 · chapter mention

if you would follow along with me.

Now, Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing

more disciples than John, although in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.

So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria. I have to pause there.

It's really interesting when it says now he had to go through Samaria because really he didn't.

The actual route that Jewish people would have taken would have been around

the east side of Samaria up to Galilee.

They would have not have gone through Samaria because Samaria was the area of

half-breeds, so to speak.

But it says, now he had to go through Samaria. I think he had to go because

he knew he had an appointment.

So he came to the town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob

had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey,

sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her,

Will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into town to buy food.

Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew and I am Samaritan woman.

How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you

for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with, and this well is deep.

Where can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it

himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?

Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

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.

He told her, Go back, call your husband and come back. I have no husband, she replied.

Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband.

The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you are now with is not your husband.

What you have said is quite true.

Sir, the woman said, I can see that you're a prophet.

Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain. Notice she's kind of turning the story here.

Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place

where we must worship in is Jerusalem.

Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the

Father. neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know,

for salvation is from the Jews.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship

the Father in the spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the

Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and truth.

The woman said, I know that the Messiah called Christ is coming.

When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared.

I, the one speaking to you, I am he. Notice that I am he.

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because 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 two days. And because of his words, many more became believers.

They said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of what you said.

Now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.

Jesus is a master teacher who taught lessons in a variety of ways.

Oftentimes, he would teach people out in large multitudes. However,

Jesus also had many one-on-one encounters with people who are just like us in

many respects, just like this woman at the well.

When Jesus gave these people his full attention, there are many life lessons

that we can learn from him.

Today, we see such an encounter with a woman we often refer to as the woman at the well.

You see, this is a story that teaches us three incredible truths about coming

face-to-face with Jesus, and it shows me and you just how much our lives really matter to him.

So what do we learn from Jesus? Well, the first is we can learn a lesson about

Jesus's personality. I want you to look at verses four through nine.

One thing we notice is that Jesus got thirsty just like we all get thirsty.

It was around the middle of the day, and after a long day's journey,

Jesus intentionally goes to the well for some water.

You see, it says he must go through Samaria, and he just happened to have to

go to the well in the middle of the day when most of the women are not going there to draw water.

They usually went and drew water at the end of the day in the cool of the evening.

So there was a Samaritan woman at the well drawing water in the middle of the

day. This is significant because, as I said, the custom is that they would either

do it in the early morning or evening.

But this woman was drawing water in the middle of the day. Why was she alone?

According to what we read and see in this passage, the woman was an outcast.

Have you ever known anybody like that?

She was probably shunned by other people and the people of her community.

She was alone in the middle of the day to hide from the embarrassment of her

sin and the resentment it caused in others.

Do you know anybody like that? Please understand this woman was of absolutely

no standing. In Jesus' day, the first century, women could not divorce a man.

Only men had that right to divorce. Therefore, when Jesus says she's had five

husbands and is now living— would that be awful?

Five husbands? Five husbands and was now living with a man. And the implication

is that's kind of like Solomon was the 700 wives and 300 concubines. He was not very wise.

Anyway, the implication is that she had been personally rejected by five husbands.

She had been divorced by 500 husbands.

Can you imagine what this must have done to this woman's self-esteem?

She felt rejected, alone, shameful, and was going from man to man trying to

find just someone who would love her and care for her.

There may be some here today or even listening online who understand this woman's plight.

Maybe you know someone who is like the Samaritan woman, wondering if anyone

really cares for them or loves them.

Some people feel rejected by someone they care about.

Some have experienced this feeling of rejection from a failed relationship.

Others have lost a job, while others may have lost someone through death.

Some feel all alone and totally isolated, as if they have no one in this world.

Still others know that they are living in sin or have some addiction or some

habit that they are trying to hide and cover up because they see no way out

and aren't even sure if they are worth fighting for.

Deep in their souls, they feel guilty and shameless like this Samaritan woman,

an outcast among outcasts.

The truth is that today you have some needs that you aren't even sure anyone can meet.

Let me give you some good news. In these few verses, the personality of Jesus is revealed.

Jesus did not care who this lady was or what she had done in her past or what

sins she had in her life right now.

Jesus simply cared for her personally.

I remember when I was getting ready to enter the ministry at age 37,

and I almost said 67, but anyway, enter the pastor at age 37.

My dad, who had been a pastor since his early 20s.

Said to me, just remember, people don't care how much you know.

They want to know how much you care.

And that would be good for all of us to remember. Jesus cares for us,

and we need to care for others.

Look at verse 4. It says, Jesus had to go through Samaria. Why?

Well, like I said, this is not the normal route. A righteous Jew would have

gone along the King's Highway, which was on the east side of Samaria.

A good and righteous Jew would never have traveled through Samaria.

But the Bible says that Jesus had to go through Samaria. And the reason he had

to go, as I said, is he knew that there was a woman there that he had a divine

appointment to meet with.

I wonder if you look at your appointments every day as a divine appointment.

When you go to meet with people at the bank, or if you have appointments at

work, or if you have classes that you have kids coming in for choir or whatever it might be for PE,

do you look at that as a divine appointment that God is putting you there for

that moment, for that time to care for those students.

The woman needed to know that she could be loved. She could be forgiven.

Her life could change. This was no accident that Jesus came to the well.

He had to go to the well.

So at just the right time, at just the right place, Jesus met the Samaritan

woman in her greatest time of need.

What was Jesus saying to this woman? What was he showing her?

Let me remind you, your life matters, and you matter deeply to God.

And Jesus has you here in this service this morning for a divine appointment.

I believe that God has ordained everything like this.

It doesn't mean that we don't have a choice, because we do.

But God has put us here for such a time as this.

This is the right place, and this is the right time, and Jesus is here to meet

you in your greatest time of need.

It may also be that this is the right time and the right place for Jesus to

meet you here for someone else's greatest time of need.

The second thing we learn is that this teaches us a lesson about Jesus's priorities.

Jesus's priorities are twofold here in this passage. The first one is his priority

was ministering to a person. Look at verse 9.

Even the woman says to Jesus that he should not be talking to her.

Jesus had, or Jews had disdain for Samaritans.

They were considered unclean because they were mixed culture.

Jesus put this woman in her needs above the customs, traditions,

and political correctness of his day.

Jesus made this woman his personal priority for that day, that moment in time.

And there are people around us that we think are too unclean for us to associate

with and ask for water from. Notice it's not that Jesus ministered to her deepest need, which he did.

But he asked her to minister to him, serving the water. I think of some that

we have on our streets here in Richland Center even. Most of us would steer

away when we see them on the streets.

But Jesus would go to them and ask, Can you give me a drink of water?

And then would minister to them in the needs they have. Are there people around

us that we think are too unclean?

Well, they aren't too unclean for Jesus.

That's mercy. That's grace.

And why should they be too unclean for us? After all, weren't we all once unclean?

Or was the Apostle Paul wrong when he said that we were once like as they are?

You know, I know there's a statement that says we're all sinners saved by grace, and that's true.

But we're saints now, and we should act like it.

We're given the blessing of being the children of God, and we need to help redeem

others. Do you know that you are a priority to Jesus?

You matter deeply to God, and you should live in that. Jesus is not the least

bit concerned about your poor reputation or even your pompous reputation.

He doesn't care what others think about you or don't think about you.

Though others may say you are a hopeless cause and will never change,

Jesus looks at you for what you can become and not what you've been or what you are.

Jesus doesn't save you to leave you where you are. He saves you to transform

you into the image of Christ.

And be a child of God. Jesus sees

the potential in you. If only we would allow him to work in our lives.

His priority also was to make a truthful proclamation.

Verses 16 through 19 says, now please take note that while Jesus showed love

and compassion for this lady, he did not show one ounce of love and compassion for her sin.

He loved the person, but he did not condone the sin.

Jesus dealt with her sin problem immediately. He knew her life.

He knew her past. He knew everything about her. He knew her motives and her thoughts.

Knowing all of this, he proclaimed the truth that she was in sin and that sin had to be dealt with.

Sin is also a serious matter to the Lord. Your sin and my sin is a serious matter to him.

Jesus died on the cross for that sin to proclaim his salvation for us and to transform us.

Jesus died on the cross to save us and to sanctify us, and he sacrificed and

shed his innocent blood for your sin and mine.

The fact of your life, just like it was for the woman at the well,

is that today when you come face-to-face with Jesus, you must also come face-to-face with your sin.

We don't like to look at that, do we? Scripture tells us that we ask God to

search our hearts and know if there's any wicked way in us and to cleanse us from that.

But before Jesus could work in this woman's life, she had to admit and deal with her sin.

All that you want for your life today, all the meaning and purpose you are seeking,

the life of fulfillment and contentment can be found in Jesus and Jesus only.

However, we must first confess and deal with the sin that is in our life and

allow God to remove it from us.

Jesus knows the truth about what's in our hearts today.

It's kind of a scary thought. It's why so many of us don't like to look at ourselves

in a mirror because we see who we really are.

Jesus knows our motives. He knows why we're here. He sees through the fake smiles

and the facades and knows the real us. Here's the best part.

Your life matters, and you matter deeply to God.

So today, we learn a lesson about Jesus' personality and Jesus' priorities,

but we also learn a lesson about Jesus' prower.

Look at verses 13 through 15 and 24 through 26 in your Bible.

It tells us that Jesus can bring calmness to your life.

This woman had a deep longing in her life. She had lived a life of rejection

and thought her life did not matter.

When she met Jesus, she found that this deep longing or this deep thirst in

her life could be so much more and that what she had hoped for could be experienced in Christ.

Jesus says, you have a choice in your life. I want you to look at verses 13 and 14.

He said, This water in the well represents the life that the woman had right then.

It was this and now. Jesus said, would you draw water for me?

This is what you have in the present, and this is what we have before Christ.

Jesus asked the woman, are you satisfied with your life now?

Do you like this water? Do you like this water that's in the well now? Is this enough for you?

Is this all you need? The water of this world you are drinking right now will never satisfy you.

Why would you choose this water any longer? And then he looks at the,

excuse me, the living water of Jesus.

It's unending, abundant, pure, fresh, and calming.

Jesus is the living water of life. He said, if you had known what I could give

you, the one who asked you for a drink of water, you would have known this water,

everlasting water that bubbles up out of your soul.

Jesus is what everyone needs.

Maybe so few experience that living water because we're afraid to share it with

them and want to keep it to ourselves.

Now, some people like Taco Bell, but I like Chinese food.

And when I find a Chinese restaurant that's really awesome, I like to keep that

to myself so nobody else will ever go there.

No, I'm going to share it with others. Jesus can bring new life and freedom into any life today.

He brings salvation. He brings a sense of calm in the middle of life storms.

He brings peace in a time of chaos.

He brings forgiveness and mercy that can replace our guilt and shame.

And Jesus also can bring change into our lives.

In verses 39 through 43, notice something here.

This woman who was introverted, hiding from the world in guilt and shame as an outcast,

This woman who was displaced, doubting, and despondent, this woman who was dehydrated

by Satan's lies and used up by Satan's

schemes, was now filled with the everlasting living water of Jesus.

She was now a soul winner.

She's out telling her testimony to everyone who will listen.

She said, come and see the man who has told me everything about myself.

She is using the bad experiences of her life to beat down Satan and to lift

up and glorify the name of Jesus. What a change.

Sure, she still had a past. Sure, she still had some problems to overcome in her present.

But thanks to the living, saving water of Jesus in her life,

she now, for the first time in her life, had a future worth living for.

It's kind of like the life of an addict. When a person makes the choice to follow

Jesus and give up those things, they still have the problems in their past.

But when they are cleansed by Christ and moved into the new way,

they have a way of overpowering that sin, and his name is Jesus.

She left that old clay jar that had been carrying the world's water at the well,

and she left as a person who was transformed into a new vessel of the living

water of faith in Christ.

God had placed a thirst in every person's life that can only be filled by Jesus.

We are created with a giant hole.

Well, it's a God-sized hole. The problem is that many today are seeking their,

happiness to be satisfied by the world's water of wealth, fame,

recognition, place, status, you name it.

People today are drinking up what everyone else around them calls love.

They're pursuing what their neighbors and friends called happiness,

which really provides no real happiness at all.

The result is that even greater thirst is created.

Have you ever noticed that when you drink a pop, a bottle of pop or soda,

whatever you call it here,

It's really great for that nice carbonation to burn down in your throat And

get rid of that dust and cobwebs and all that's in your throat Whatever there is.

But I'm telling you, as soon as you drink that, you're thirsting for more.

There's nothing like a pure bottle of water to cleanse your thirst more than anything else.

I wonder if we're ready to be water carriers for the King of kings and Lord

of lords. You need to know, and we need to let the world know,

that your life matters and you matter deeply to God.

When we come face-to-face with Jesus, it causes us to come face-to-face with

others who need to come face-to-face with Jesus, go into all the world,

and make disciples who make disciples who make disciples.

And if you matter deeply to God, then all people matter deeply to God.

And if all people matter deeply to God, they must matter deeply to us as well.

Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, as we close this time of worship,

we give you thanks and praise.

We thank you that you have loved us from the very beginning,

even when we aren't lovable or even when we don't even love ourselves.

You've come to give us the living water. You've come to be face-to-face with

us, sometimes to hug us, sometimes to chastise us, but it all shows us your

love, and Father, we thank you for that.

And we ask that you would help us to be your people as we go into this community

and this world, that we might give the care to others that leads them to come face to face with you.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.