7th April 2024 - Communion Service

In other words, sharing what God has placed in her heart this morning.

So yes, would you please come, let's pray together and for another time

for the Lord to release all what he has placed in your heart. Father,

thank you so much for my sister, just me and Lord for her

willingness and her obedience. Lord to always faithfully prepare and just be a receptor

of what you had placed in her heart, in her mind, and this

morning ready to share with us. Father, touch our hearts, touch our

minds, touch everything Lord through this world, and help us just to be

renewed and strengthen through what She's going to share with us this morning. In

the name of Jesus, we pray, Amen, and I'll give you this

one good morning money. So this month's theme is building community and the title

of this morning's message is building a bridge. Back in the lists of time

when I was at school, one of the A levels I studied was German

and I won one of twenty places in a nationwide program to go and spend

three weeks in Germany between in the summer between the first and second years of

the A levels. So twenty of us gradually descended on an airport from all

over the UK and met for the first time. I remember there was one

girl who was standing apart from the rest of us, and I thought she

was a snob, not wanting to mix with the rest of us. But

actually I was wrong. It just didn't occur to me that she was shy.

But thankfully this one guy and Dean. He was a lively character who

was happy to be at the center of you know, everything, but he

was also inclusive in his approach, and he's the one who went alongside her,

talked to her, and gradually drew her into the group, and in

fact, she and I became good friends afterwards. But it took Dean to

lead the way and build a bridge, and building community starts with building a

bridge. Jesus is obviously our best example of this. So we'll look today

at the account of Jesus and the Woman at the World in Samaria. That's

in John chapter four. That's our main passage for today, and I'm reading

from the New King James version. It's a long passage, so I'll skip

verses which aren't relevant for today, but to give the context. First,

Jesus has left Judea and is returning to the province of Galilee with his disciples.

Ancient Israel was basically divided into two different provinces, Judea to the south

and Galilee to the north. In between these two provinces, separating Judea from

Galilee was a place called Samaria. They come to a city called Saikar or

Sukhar, and the disciples go into town to buy food. Jesus is tired

and sits down by a well. It's about noon, so John chapter four,

verse seven, and I'm reading from the New King James version, John

chapter four, verse seven. A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, give me a drink. Jesus was tired from the

journey. He was probably thirsty. It was noon, the hottest part of

the day, as well as hungry. The disciples had gone to buy food.

Some of us can be a bit grumpy when we're tired, hungry,

and thirsty, and it was potentially hot depending on the time of year.

But Jesus was so focused on his father's business, as he had been since

childhood. To quote him in luke To verse forty nine, that he learned

to keep his focus on that and chose not to focus on his own physical

needs. It takes a lot of grace to recognize a god opportunity to build

a bridge, especially when it means us choosing to take our attention away from

our own valid needs and onto what God is wanting to us to say or

do in a given moment. It's very easy to reason our way out of

it. I say it takes a lot of grace in these situations, and

I think it's worth explaining something about that word grace. To briefly quote John

Piper, a theologian, the simple definition is of undeserved favor. Also embraces

the encourage truth that this favor overflows in powerful practical help from God in your

daily life when you most need it. So Grace's undeserved favor that also overflows

in powerful practical help from God in our daily lives when we most need it.

My point is, the opportunity to build a bridge doesn't always come when

it's convenient. John Chapter four, verse nine. Then the woman of Samaria

said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask

a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with

Samaritans. I think it's helpful for us to understand this better by looking briefly

at the history of the hostility between Samaritans and Jews. In the eighth century

BC, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried the Israelites into exile.

This is recorded in the Second Book of Kings, chapter seventeen. He sent

people from elsewhere to inhabit it, and these foreigners intermarried with the remaining Israelites.

These Samaritans, in due course, embraced a religion that was a mixture

of Judaism and idolatry. Because the Israelite inhabitants of Samaria had intermarried with foreigners

and adopted aspects of their idolatious religion, Samaritans were despised by the Jews.

There are a number of other reasons as well, but I won't go into

that all now, Galileans usually journeyed through Samaria for festivals in Jerusalem because it

was the most direct route, but Samaritans sometimes heckled them, and at times

the conflict could lead to violence, and Jesus asks this Samaritan woman for some

water. The context helps us to understand how such a simple request was actually

really radical and the first step towards building a bridge. I remember hearing a

relatively modern day example of this nature. I once heard a Vickers speak who

was from northern Ireland, and he served in the church at a time when

there was a lot of tension between Protestants and Catholics, and there was a

lot of conflict and violence. One Christmas Day he decided to cross the road

to the Catholic church and shake hands with the priest. That caused so much

trouble and death threats that he was forced to leave Ireland with his family.

Building a bridge can be both radical and costly. John chapter four, verse

ten. Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of

God and who it is who says to you give me a drink, you

would have asked him and he would have given you living water. The woman

said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well

is deep. Where then do you get that living water? The Samaritan woman

actually asked Jesus in the previous verse, how is it that you, being

a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? But he

doesn't answer the question. He's focusing on building a bridge. Instead. He

answers, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says

to you, give me a drink. You would have asked him and he

would have given you living water. Have you ever asked God for something and

not had a direct answer. He's not playing games with you. One possible

reason is that Kia, he's pointing you towards a bigger picture. Until you

see it, it can be a bit frustrating or disheartening, but it's an

opportunity to practice patience. It may not be a welcome one, but it's

an opportunity nonetheless, which will help us to stay focused on him until it

becomes clear what point the Lord does want to make. Jesus said, if

you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you,

give me a drink? How many people talk to God and don't actually realize

who they're talking to. So many people come to a point in their lives

where they cry out, Lord, if you're real, do this, whatever

it is. I remember a school friend telling me something about her mum.

Neither she nor her mum were believers, but when her mum was younger,

I think a teenager she wants pray to the Lord. If you're real,

Let it rain just outside my bedroom window where she had no win a ledge,

and nowhere else. And that night that's exactly what happened. She woke

up in the morning and that's what she saw. Then she prayed the opposite,

Lord, if you're real, let it rain everywhere except on the window

ledge. And the next day when she woke up, that's exactly what had

happened. But she never went the extra step and gave her life to the

Lord. I don't know if she'd put on a condition on it or not.

Lord, if you do this and I will, I don't know that

part, but she never went the extra step. But I was also recently

listening to a pastor about how he came to know the Lord. He wasn't

raised a believer, and his mum had always suffered really badly with psoriasis,

and one day, as a teenager, out of the blue, he said

aloud, Lord, if you're real, heal my mum and I'll give my

life to you. The next day his mum was completely healed. A week

later, the Lord spoke to him, He actually appeared to him in a

vision and said, I've done my part, what about yours? The guy

surrendered his life to the Lord. The point is, God is always willing

to build a bridge with us, but he won't force us to build with

him. John four, verse ten. Jesus said, if you knew the

gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a

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

The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with,

and the well is deep. Where then, do you get that living

water. The woman's response seems a little strange. You understand that living water

was a way of referring to water in a physical sense, that is,

flowing and fresh, as from a running stream or a perennial spring. Its

motion and freshness resembles life, in contrast with, for example, stagnant water.

John chapter four, verses thirteen to fifteen. Jesus answered and said to

her, whoever drinks of this water will first again. But whoever drinks of

the water that I shall give him will never first. But the water that

I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up

into everlasting life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this

water that I may not first nor come here to draw. Jesus is obviously

referring to the living water of the Holy Spirit that he was going to send.

But this lady's eyes have clearly not yet been open to the spiritual meaning.

It's jesus prophetic insight into her life that is the next building block on

this bridge towards her Verses sixteen to nineteen. Jesus said to her, go

call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have

no husband. Jesus said to her, you have well said I have no

husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now

have is not your husband. In that you spoke truly, the woman said

to him, Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. Why is Jesus

calling out the fact that this lady has had five husbands and she's not married

to the guy she's living with. He's love, He's not being unkind on

me. My personal view is that he's acknowledging the rejection the fact that this

is new considered the beginning of the hottest hour, when people would seek shade,

maybe have a light meal off and have a siesta. And this woman

comes alone to the well at this time suggests that she was not welcome with

the other women since women usually went to draw water together. It doesn't specify,

so we can't be sure. But whilst it's possible that she's been widowed

even more than once, it's also possible that she's been divorced more than once.

It's possible that she was infertile, and when she failed to provide children

for each husband, she was cast aside as I understand it, according to

Jewish law, only husbands could initiate divorce, which required no explanation or justification,

So it potentially got to the point where she was just living with a

man without marrying him because he didn't want to commit to her. As the

NIV Cultural Background Study Bible says, nearly all ancient hearers would look negatively on

her situation and assume that she had us us statu stas sai stas sat us

ussis usus sai