John 4:26-54

We're in John 4, verses 26 to 45. John 4. So if you've got a black church Bible, that's page 889.

John 4:26–45

While I was on holiday last week, I read a biography of an American minister from the last century called Jack Miller.

Jack Miller, some of you might know him. He actually preached here a number of times in the 80s and 90s.

He was related to someone in our presbytery. Jack Miller was a great character.

The title of the biography is Cheer Up. Cheer Up Jack Miller. It was one of the things that he used to say.

Cheer up, you're far worse than you think you are, but God's grace is greater than you realize.

And one of the things Jack Miller talks constantly about in that, well, they talk about him, is that he was the chief confessor.

That as the minister, as one of the elders, he was the chief repenter in the congregation.

And so I thought I'd try it this morning.

I am a grump.

You might not think that. You might think, well, he's got a very jovial personality.

But my default is grumpiness.

And that's why John 4 is just such a wonderful chapter, particularly for me, but I hope to you also.

Because it's one of the happiest chapters in all of the Bible.

It began as a detour.

Jesus and his disciples, they go through Samaria, but it finishes up with a mini revival.

These Samaritans, lots of them saying, Jesus is the savior of the world.

And it comes through the testimony of a dubious woman with a checkered past.

And verse 27 is the result of Jesus' interaction with her.

And what we find is that living water is now bubbling up in her life, and it overflows into the lives of many.

And so we follow the progress of the gospel amongst the Samaritans.

And at the center of this passage, Jesus opens up to the disciples what is going on.

And he says, look, see, behold.

And all the categories are categories of joy and satisfaction and gratification and nourishment.

It's a chapter that's about joy and happiness and overflow of eternal life.

It's about a new moment in history of sowing and harvesting and reaping.

And what is at the bottom of all this happiness?

Where does this spiritual enjoyment come from?

And that's really helpful if you are someone who is tempted by spiritual grumpiness.

There is a temptation, it's particular to Presbyterians, I think, of a creeping crankiness.

It happens, doesn't it, to Christians after a few years.

You've left all the spontaneous joy behind the rubbish you sing in youth camps, those 70s choruses.

But now we've grown up.

Now we've settled into the grim grind of discipleship.

And of course, none of you are tempted by that.

But I want to give you three refreshing spiritual realities that are found in this passage.

The first is gospel joy.

Gospel just means good news.

The second is gospel hunger.

And the third is gospel sight.

So let's take each three.

Gospel joy.

The tone.

It's important, I think, if you look at that.

The tone is one of happiness.

Overwhelming joy.

We can see it, can't we, in the excitement of the Samaritan woman.

Look at verses 27 to 30.

The disciples come back to Jesus.

They'd left him alone.

He was at the well.

He's tired and hungry.

He's on a long walk.

And they've gone off to town to get some refreshments.

And there's a Samaritan woman who's come out in midday, in the midday heat, to gather and get water.

Which is completely the wrong time to get water.

You don't need to do that if you were trying to avoid all contact with people.

And Jesus breaks all the customs of the day.

And he speaks with her.

And he simply asks her for a drink, doesn't he?

And from that point on in the conversation, it is the woman who takes the initiative.

Jesus is just answering.

And it's wonderful to watch it.

And you see the way it works.

Jesus asks a question.

And then Jesus answers her questions.

And they are stunning.

He moves her at a pace.

He takes her deeper each time until she reveals, doesn't he?

Can you see it?

She says he is the Christ.

She calls him the Christ.

What's the situation?

The disciples return to the well.

They find Jesus talking to the woman.

And they cannot believe it.

So verse 28.

The woman leaves her water jar.

She goes back into town.

And she says to the people.

She says, come and see a man who told me everything I ever did.

Can this be the Christ?

The Lord's anointed one.

The Messiah we've been expecting.

And the people, they go out of the town.

And they come longingly to him.

There's something disarmingly honest and natural about this woman.

She goes in the heat of the day to get water.

She leaves the water bottle.

Because she has discovered, doesn't she, something infinitely more wonderful.

And she races back to tell everyone what's happened.

She came out with a jug to draw water.

But she returns to the town with the water of eternal life welling up and overflowing in her heart.

As soon as she gets an inkling that this Jesus of Nazareth is God's Messiah, she drinks the living water.

And as soon as she begins to drink the living water, she becomes a fountain of living water.

For other people as well.

She doesn't even think about it.

It just overflows from her.

One of the best commentators on John says this.

It is the nature of faith that we want to bring others to share eternal life with us.

When we become partakers of it, the knowledge of God cannot lie buried and inactive in our hearts and not be made known.

And so this woman, she's got amazing eagerness and enthusiasm to go to the town.

And she wants the people to go out and meet Jesus.

She doesn't stop for a moment to think this is an enormous, massive, uphill battle that my witness is going to face.

I mean, if she stopped for a moment, she'd realize there's going to be a terrible reception, isn't there, to her witness.

She says, hey everyone.

I met a man at the well.

And they are going to say, not again.

And she says, he told me everything I ever did.

And they say, everyone knows what you've done.

And she says, no, no, no.

He might be the Messiah.

And they say, yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

The Messiah appears to you.

But in verse 30, it tells us that what she said worked.

And the people continually scream out to Jesus.

Now, how does she do it?

What is the key that makes her message so successful?

I mean, if you look at her message, you will not find it in any training manual.

It is all a bit mixed up.

It begins with a massive exaggeration.

It says, come see a man who told me everything I ever did.

It's not right.

Could this be the Messiah?

Literally, it's maybe, maybe not.

This woman needs, doesn't she, to do a term in adult Sunday school.

She needs to go on evangelism training with Rico Tice.

She knows her reputation.

But what I want you to see, what is incredible to me, and I hope to you,

is that instead of hiding her reputation, she leads with that.

She'd been so ashamed that she wanted to go to the well at a time when no one else was there.

She was so ashamed of her reputation, but now she leads with that.

She doesn't care anymore about her reputation.

So long as people go out to Jesus, she's been gripped by the grace and the kindness of the Lord Jesus.

And at the same time, Jesus knows the very depths of what she's done and how she's lived and how she's deceived.

And he keeps talking with her.

And he offers to her this life.

He doesn't say, you're too far gone.

He doesn't say, this isn't for your type of person.

He accepts her.

He honors her.

He welcomes her.

And those things grab her heart and change her.

And that grip of grace gives her this lovely, joyful freedom.

And the only possible explanation is that she is no longer gripped by the fear of exposure.

Are you gripped by that?

All her past mistakes with men.

All her fear.

All her drinking from the wrong places that's been kept hidden in the dark.

It doesn't enslave her anymore.

Because she's now drunk from the well of living water.

And it starts to spill over.

It's something you see, isn't it, when someone becomes a Christian.

It's something I wish I would see more often in my own life.

There's something really beautiful, something liberating about this change.

And so, in this moment, she moves from living a lie and trying to conceal her sin and her foolishness.

And keeping it in the dark to being perfectly free and open.

And living in the daylight.

She's playing a very different game, isn't it, than the one she came to the well with.

And suddenly she says, everyone in town needs to hear this.

And she goes into the town and she treats everyone as if they're exactly the same as she is.

There's no one above me, no one beneath me.

There's no class anymore, no social divide.

Everyone needs to hear this.

She thinks, she feels, I think, instinctively that there's a new center in her life.

There's a new resource that she has.

And she's speaking out of simple and profound joy.

And she is a wonderful example to us, I think.

She does what all of us should do.

And so, for many of us, isn't it, for many of us, we think we cannot bring our sin to the light.

We cannot bring it into the open.

And we keep it in.

It's like this with children, isn't it?

Let me speak to the children.

Look up for a minute, children.

And so, when you've done something.

And you are in a bad mood about it.

And you're in a grump about it.

And mum and dad say, you can tell us.

You can tell us about it.

And what do you think?

You think, don't you?

You think, I can't.

I can't do it.

I can't do it.

Does that make it better?

It doesn't, does it?

And when you bring it out into the light, what is there?

There is forgiveness, isn't there?

There's forgiveness from mum and dad.

And there's forgiveness from the Lord Jesus as we bring things into the light.

And then what happens?

There is liberation.

There is freedom.

And children, do you know what?

It's not just you.

Grown-ups are like this too.

We hide our sin and we want to control it.

And the answer is to know that Jesus knows it.

And to accept that and to bring it into the light.

Nothing has changed in this woman's outward circumstances.

She's still got this trail of guys.

She's shacked up with someone else.

Nothing has changed about that.

And yet she's an example to us.

She speaks.

She speaks about Jesus and what Jesus has done in her life.

And I think if there is a cure for spiritual crankiness and misery,

it is returning to the grace and being gripped by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so I can say to you this morning on the authority of the word of God,

Jesus knows you in your depths.

But he welcomes you.

And he loves you and he embraces you and he will share his life with you.

And he's not.

She doesn't stand on her own self-righteousness.

She does the opposite.

She stands on Christ's word.

And as we gather Sunday by Sunday,

as we speak to people about the gospel,

we're not testifying to our own self-righteousness.

There's nothing technique or self-conscious about this witness.

Christian witness is not telling people,

get your act together for goodness sake.

It is not pointing to your self-righteousness.

It is being freed from that and it is pointing to the Lord Jesus,

who is the source of living water.

And that's the source of gospel joy.

The second thing is gospel hunger.

The disciples are scandalized when they come back.

They're shocked Jesus is talking to a woman.

The culture was a sexist culture.

The culture was a racist culture.

Religiously divided.

But they very wisely,

it's one of the only times in the gospel,

the disciples hold their tongues.

They don't say anything.

It's a very wise course of action.

If you find something in Jesus you're scandalized by,

if you find something in the Bible that you don't agree with,

and we'll come to this in chapter 14, for example,

when Jesus says,

no one comes to God except through me,

there is no one who comes to God except through me,

he slices every religion out of the pie,

it's a very good idea to keep listening,

because when we listen,

it means that God is about to reveal something to us.

And that's what happened.

The disciples, the followers of Jesus here,

they've got no time for this scarlet Samaritan woman.

They are totally focused on food.

Verse 31.

They badger him.

Come on, eat something.

We've gone to all this trouble

to buy food for you.

Now we finally got rid of her.

Sit down.

You're starving.

I'm starving.

Let's eat.

In verse 32, Jesus says,

I've got food you know nothing about.

And in verse 33,

you've got to love the disciples.

Has he had a packed lunch?

What's he been doing?

They go, what are you on about?

And then in verse 34,

Jesus says this,

my food is to do the will of him

who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Now, think about this.

Don't you find this amazing?

Think that Jesus refuses physical food

when he's so hungry.

I can't refuse food when I'm not hungry.

But this conversation,

it's so pressed on him.

He is so absorbed by this conversation

that he cannot even think about physical food.

Jesus finds what he's doing spiritually

so nourishing,

so strengthening,

it's more important to him than eating.

He's put so much energy and focus

into leading this woman to the water.

He doesn't really care about his own

physical thirst or hunger.

He's not anti-food at all.

He loves food.

We see that in the Gospels.

But he's saying there's something more important.

There's something more nourishing.

There's something more satisfying to him.

That man shall not live by bread alone,

but every word that proceeds

from the mouth of God.

And what is more nourishing

and more satisfying to him

is doing the work,

doing the will of the Father

and finishing the work.

Finishing his work,

which I think is a reference to the cross.

It's the same word

that he cries out on the cross,

it is finished.

The context is,

this woman has been brought,

as indeed,

to a saving knowledge of the truth.

And in doing it,

Jesus is completely in line

with the will of God.

The God we saw last week

seeks those who worship him

in spirit and in truth.

And nothing brings Jesus

more soul satisfaction than that.

Nothing feeds his heart more than this.

We had a really encouraging prayer meeting

on Wednesday night.

And Ruben led the first little party.

He said one thing

which really has struck with me since then.

He says,

Jesus loves to hear your voice.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

Nothing feeds Jesus' heart

more than this.

And I think the idea is here,

actually this woman,

whose life is total car crash,

has begun to enjoy this same food.

It's the heartbeat of all those

who are gripped by God's grace.

It is the source of sustenance

to do the will of God.

In the Old Testament,

David said,

your law, oh Lord,

is sweeter than honey.

The psalmist says to you and I,

taste and see that the Lord is good.

The Lord is better than your Sunday lunch.

And Jesus takes us deeper, doesn't he?

He's not just talking about the will of God,

he's talking about doing it.

And he says,

there's nothing like it.

I cannot live without it.

He is so concerned for people

to have living water.

It's his highest pleasure.

It's gospel hunger.

And thirdly, there's gospel sight.

At the heart of this passage,

I'd missed this

until later on in the week,

there are three commands.

I don't know whether you spotted them.

They all have to do with sight.

Look at verses 35 and 36.

Look what it says there.

It says,

look, I tell you.

Lift up your eyes and see.

Three commands.

Jesus says the same thing three times.

Look, lift up your eyes, see.

And Jesus wants to raise our expectations.

And he wants to raise our eyes,

not just to the urgent needs of friends and family,

but to the power of God's word.

And the immediacy of God's word,

that God can make a change in you and I

from darkness to light,

from thirst to living water,

in an instant.

And this is a unique insight

into the heart and mind of Jesus.

What he's saying,

he's saying,

look around you.

What is going on, disciples?

The Samaritans are pouring over the hill to him.

And the disciples say,

let's eat, let's eat, let's eat,

food, food, food.

And Jesus says,

no, no, no.

See the Samaritans.

What you're seeing is fruit for eternal life.

He's saying that the sowing and the reaping

are coming together at the same time.

In other words,

the time between sowing and reaping

has been collapsed.

So the usual way is you sow in the spring

and there's a gap from when you sow

to when you harvest.

But as Jesus sees the Samaritans coming to him,

Jesus says,

the word of God is so powerful,

it doesn't need months for it to work immediately.

Now, why is this important?

This is important because if you go in your Bible,

Amos chapter 9 for a moment,

Amos 9 · chapter mention

you can go there if you want,

if you don't want to, I'll read it.

But it's a fairly unknown section in Amos chapter 9.

Amos 9 · chapter mention

The prophet speaks the word of God there.

And he tells us about the day,

the time when the Messiah comes.

And in verse 13 of Amos chapter 9,

Amos 9 · chapter mention

he says,

Behold, the days are coming,

declares the Lord,

when the plowman will overtake the reaper

and the treader of grapes who sows the seed,

the mountains of the hill shall drip with sweet wine.

And all the hills will flow with it.

And I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel.

So here is the promise of God

that in the day of the Messiah,

sowing, harvesting, making the best wine

will all come together.

It's not that the normal processes have been sped up.

It's that there's something about the seed of God's word

that is so powerful

that it all happens.

And we don't control it.

So the sower takes the seed

and before he puts it in the ground,

there's a bottle of red wine in his hand.

Do you see the picture?

It's a picture again of overflowing life.

It's a picture of blessing.

It's a picture for you and I

of the gospel going out and exploding.

Do you see that?

I mean, do you have that sight?

The Samaritan woman herself

has just received her sight.

It's already flowered in her life.

And now she's planting seeds

and they're coming from everywhere.

And the response to her lovely,

honest witness

is the first group

in John's gospel to come to faith.

So far, all the rest

have been individuals.

Individuals.

But here it is a group.

Jesus says she's earning the wages.

She's receiving wages,

not just the harvest.

She's entering into the joy

which the Lord has given

in the overflowing living water

as she sees people move

towards the Lord Jesus.

And that's the way it works with God.

And so every word we speak,

every prayer we pray,

every attempt

to reach out

with the love of God

to others

participates

in the joy of the Lord Jesus.

It's the picture of witness

in the New Testament.

To witness to the Lord Jesus

is not forcing yourself

to impose yourself

and your views on others.

It is an overflow

of truth and grace.

It is being honest

about who you are.

It's being honest

about your needs

and your failures.

So if you say

to somebody,

if you say to someone,

actually,

I struggle with forgiveness

as a Christian,

and you tell somebody

who is not a Christian,

they will be very interested

in that.

And I know

that many of you here

have been Christians

for a while,

and you likely feel

pretty inadequate

about this area

of your life.

I know I do.

Some of us will feel

as we talk about this

that every time

I open my mouth

to speak to others

about Jesus,

I've put my foot in it.

I've gone too far,

I've gone too fast,

I've said too much,

or I've gone too slow,

and I didn't say enough.

And many of us feel

we ought to be taking

more initiative in this.

And when we've taken

the initiative,

we've been overbearing

and impossible.

And there's lots

of failed attempts

in our lives.

And with the cultural

animosity towards Christians,

the temptation is,

isn't it,

to be silent,

to go underground.

I had a conversation

in Cafe Nero

the other week,

I was doing preparation

in there,

I was by the window,

and there was

a road rage incident,

just quite often is,

isn't there,

just on Xbridge Road

opposite the bank.

And I looked at

the person opposite me

as we were both

gawping at it.

And I said,

kind of raised my eyebrows,

said it's terrible,

isn't it?

And then he started

to lament

all the violence

of our culture.

And he said this,

what are we going

to do about it?

And I said,

well,

I had a Bible open,

so I said,

well,

Jesus' view would be

that there's violence

inside of me

and inside of you.

And he happily

told me a story

about his own road rage.

He said he was cycling,

I don't know where

he was cycling,

and he got so angry

with a driver

who'd cut him up

that when they got

to a traffic light,

he pulled the driver

out of the car

and beat him up

so they needed

hospital treatment.

I was pretty surprised,

I was just drinking

a flat white.

I said to him,

how do you deal

with your guilt

over that

stuttering away?

He said,

I'm a good person

and I've atoned for it.

When I started

to talk about Jesus,

how Jesus

deals

with that

by dying

in our place,

the guy was

completely disinterested

and bored.

I was stuttering

and not being

particularly coherent.

I lamely invited him

to church,

I said I know

the preacher there.

He said,

too busy,

too many things

to do.

It was very friendly

but a total fiasco.

A total fiasco,

I completely blew it.

I've been reminded

as I've looked

at this passage

this week,

the importance

of responding.

Can you see that?

of responding

to people's questions.

Jesus,

apart from opening

the door

by asking

for a drink of water,

the rest of the conversation

is driven

by the woman.

That is a big

weight off her shoulders,

I think.

It is not the grim,

grinding guilt

of getting the gospel out.

It's the honest,

joyful response

when people

criticize you

or they criticize

Christianity

or they ask you

a question,

the truth of your life

and my life,

it will come out

to our friends.

It comes out

in the decisions

that you make,

in the attitudes

you have.

And then we've seen

how Jesus

so beautifully

answers those questions.

He takes it

deeper each time

until she receives

the living water.

and the joy

that comes

from that

is so wonderful

that it will

overcome

and overwhelm

our fear.

It overwhelms

the temptation

that I feel

and you feel

to stay silent.

And so,

two clear promises

of Jesus

as we finish.

as we refuse

to stay silent

and seek

to answer

people's questions.

Number one,

Jesus promises

there will be fruit,

verse 35.

There will be

eternal abiding fruit

in the lives

of others.

Just think about

what's going on here

for a minute with me.

The Samaritan woman's

witness

is deeply flawed.

but it gave

Jesus great joy

and it bore fruit.

Didn't it?

And your imperfect

and feeble

attempts

to witness

to Jesus Christ,

they are accepted

by God

through Jesus Christ.

And so,

let me tell you this,

you don't have

to get it right.

And there's

reward in it.

It's not that

you're cleverer

or braver

than anyone else.

It is because

of the spiritually

satisfying joy

of being engaged

with God.

So,

number one,

Jesus promises

that there will be fruit.

Jesus promises

us,

secondly,

that God

has actually

gone before us

and is working.

Look at verse 38.

God

I send you,

I send you,

I send you,

to reap that

for which you

did not labor.

Others have labored

and you have entered

in that,

into their labor.

Some people think

that that could be

John the Baptist

or the Old Testament

prophets,

the others.

I think it's most likely

that the others

are God the Father

and God the Spirit

who moves ahead

of us,

who is seeking

worshippers,

who seeks people,

who speaks to people,

who saves people.

It's not that we

are seeking people,

it is God the Father.

He is working

much harder

for your friends

or family

or the people

in your life

than you are.

And so if we

testify to what

God has done

and point to

Jesus Christ,

God has gone before

and we enter

into his work.

And you and I

need eyes to see that.

That is spiritual sight.

And so the passage

finishes

and the Samaritans

ask Jesus to stay

for two very fruitful days.

Verse 42,

they say these

amazing words,

it is no longer

because of what you said

that we believe,

we've heard for ourselves

and we know

that this indeed

is the saviour

of the world.

It's great,

isn't it?

God works

through ordinary

flawed witnesses.

He works

through the

ordinary

and flawed

woman

to bring people

to Christ.

She doesn't

convert them.

What she does

is she points

people to Jesus.

And as they

come to Jesus

they know

living water

and forgiveness

and freedom

from their past

and eternal life

and salvation

for themselves

and they begin

to experience

gospel joy

and gospel hunger

and gospel sight

because they call

Jesus the saviour

of the world.

and they are amazed

that Jesus

has included

them

outsiders

in God's

salvation.

But they say

it's bigger than us.

It's got to go

to the ends

of the earth

that he is the saviour

not just of the Jews

or of the Samaritans

but the saviour

of the world

and my saviour.

Can you see

John 4 holds

these two things?

It is both

personal

very personal

and global.

And when you

discover that

there's no joy

like it.

And I would

love you

to know

this joy.

That joy

would be great

wouldn't it?

And we pray

this joy

for healing

further afield.

Let's pray

that God

would do it here.

Let's pray.

Amen.