The Power of a Testimony - John 4:27-42 (03.29.2026)

Good morning. This morning we're reading John 4, and despite what the sermon

text in the notes says, we're reading verses 27 to 42.

I'll read the text, and then I'll say, this is the word of the Lord,

and if you'll respond with, thanks be to God.

Just then, his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a

woman, but no one said, What do you seek? Or, Why are you talking with her?

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,

Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?

They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat.

But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about.

So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat?

Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Do you not say there are yet four months, then comes the harvest?

Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.

Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal

life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps.

I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor, others have labored,

and you have entered into their labor.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.

He told me all that I ever did.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them,

and he stayed there two days.

And many more believed because of his word.

They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe,

for we have heard for ourselves.

And we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. This is the word of the Lord.

Well, good morning, Christ Church.

Welcome back, family and friends. If this is your first time visiting,

we're so glad you're here.

I see some new faces and some familiar faces.

And so we want to just welcome you, friends and family, for joining us to worship our risen Savior today.

If you're new, what we've been doing the last couple, or I guess since the beginning

of the year, the last several weeks, we're going through the gospel of John,

who John, of course, was an eyewitness and friend to Jesus's life.

He saw his death, he saw his resurrection, and he saw his ascension into heaven.

So John's been following him, and then decades later, decades later,

he writes down all of these things in this book with the purpose of, as he says in John 20,

so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,

and that by believing in Him, you may have life in His name.

So we pray that this would be true for us today, that we would receive this

life that Jesus provides, just like this story that we're continuing in John

John 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 with the woman at the well.

And we've seen this purpose so far in John's writing.

We saw it in John chapter one, when he talks about the word became flesh and

dwelt among us, speaking of Jesus Christ who came incarnate.

We saw it in chapter two with the wedding at Cana.

We see it in chapter three with Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus.

And then also continuing here in chapter four with the Samaritan woman,

when Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well and alters history.

With this interaction with this Samaritan woman. We're going to continue some of that.

So Candice mentioned this, your sermon outline will say John chapter four,

verses one through 26, but we're actually going to preach 27 through 42,

which is the font in your sermon outline.

But maybe we just preach two messages today, one through 26 and 27.

No, I'm just kidding. Keep your seats, keep your seats, everyone.

But we are going to go back and visit some of what Pastor Ben preached last

week, because this is a continuation of the story.

And so as Ben mentioned last week, we can't continue this story without first

recognizing that we are, the Bible shows us that we are the Samaritan woman,

deep in sin and shame, and we need a savior to come and rescue us,

to give us life and living water.

And so we put ourselves in that position first, because it would be, it would be.

Foolish of us to just take what is said and just go, and we should just go to

the ends of the earth and make disciples, which is a great thing to do.

But the Bible speaks to us so that we would be reconciled with God, the living God.

So we first realize that we are sinners and we see the true and perfect character of God.

And then out of that overflow, we go and make disciples, which is what we see in here.

So hopefully today, what I want to show is the power of a testimony as we We

continue the second half of John chapter four here with the woman at the well,

because one person's testimony from her life-changing encounter with Jesus changed an entire city.

One person's testimony changed an entire city.

Last week, we celebrated three baptisms, and each one of them shared their testimony.

And what they were doing was they're giving credit to God for the life change

that has happened within them.

So each one of them stood there and shared how God entered their life and encountered

them and interacted with them and brought them to saving faith.

Not based on what they had done, but as we just sang, what he has done.

So when we talk about testimony, sometimes we use the word witness,

but what we're doing is we're attributing whatever life change that has happened in us to God.

He's the one that regenerated my heart to give me faith to believe and receive the gift of salvation.

Nothing that I did, nothing that you did, nothing that we did collectively,

but all by His grace, His love, His power, His wisdom, and all for His glory.

Amen. Amen. And so we're going to continue in this story and John and just to

share some neat things that John does while I have the microphone,

because I don't get to do this too often. So I want to share some pretty cool

things that John does, just a couple of things.

So he uses numbers and opposites in his writing to help display and go deeper

into these spiritual truths.

And so one of the things we get to see just recently was at the wedding of Cana,

this is one of seven miraculous signs that we'll see throughout this book.

And then later in the book, we'll get to see these seven explicit I am statements.

And seven is a key number that John uses because it signals the number of completion, of perfection.

And so we'll get to see this throughout the book. But with the wedding at Cana,

there were six water jars.

There were only six water doors signaling the incompletion. And so Jesus fills

those with water and he turns them into new wine.

With Jesus showing that he's the seventh. The seventh vessel carrying the new

wine of the new covenant.

That he is the perfect and complete vessel.

We see this with the woman at the well. She had five husbands,

right? Remember last week, she had five husbands.

She was with the sixth. And then Jesus enters and says, let me be the seventh,

the perfect and complete, fully satisfied. You need nothing more than me.

And he doesn't approach her like the other men probably do.

Jesus said, I don't want your body. I don't want things from you. I just want you.

He looks her straight in the heart and says, I want you.

Jesus is sitting at this well earlier in chapter four, talking with this woman

as if she is his daughter.

Jesus is looking at her and he sees all the mess in her life.

And it's just, I see past all of that. I see past all of that.

I created you. I knitted you in your mother's womb.

I know every hair on your head.

That's what the Psalms say. I know about your wrong theology.

I know about all the wrong things that you have done. I've just told you.

But he brings them up not to shame her because she doesn't want to talk about

it, right? She keeps on avoiding the issue of him.

But Jesus says, I'm not bringing these up to shame you.

I'm bringing these up to redeem you.

Jesus sees her drawing from broken cisterns, continually drawing from broken

cisterns, leaving still with emptiness.

She's probably looking for identity in a man or purpose or value or attention.

And she says, seek no more. I am, I am he.

She looks here, doesn't see it in that man. She goes to the next and to the

next and then to the next, and then to the next, I think that's six,

five, six, next, next, next.

But it's like Jesus saying, I'm bringing these things up so that you may have

life in my name, in my name.

Maybe coming off the last week's sermon, that's where you walked out and you

were pondering on these things over the week.

And maybe even today, you just need that reminder that all you need is the satisfaction

of the perfect love of God.

You need nothing more than His all-sufficient love and His all-sufficient wisdom

and His all-sufficient power to receive it, receive it today.

But the woman, she was clearly thirsty and going to the well for daily living, daily water.

And she asked Jesus for this living water so that she wouldn't have to go back to the well anymore.

And there's probably in that moment, there's still some self-seeking motive

because she was rejected by the community at that time, probably very severely

gossiped about having five husbands and with the six, that's not her husband.

And so she was avoiding people.

And she's just like, I don't really know what's going on here.

I don't know how you know everything about me. You might be a prophet.

But Jesus, like the perfect shepherd he is, just continues to pull on her heart,

draw out what is deep within there.

And it's the same for us as been preached last week, that we're all looking for more.

We're all looking for something or someone to satisfy us.

We're looking elsewhere. We're looking for things. We're looking for the next

milestone or the next promotion or the next birthday, whatever it might be.

We're looking for something more.

And we get so excited about this thing, but it leaves us wanting more and more.

And so this woman says, I don't know how you know this, but I do know that Messiah is coming in verse 25.

We saw this last week. I know Messiah is coming and he will make all things understandable.

He'll make everything clear so that I can know what's going on here.

And for context, when this woman, the Samaritan woman, talks about the Messiah,

she's thinking about a reincarnate Moses.

And this comes from Deuteronomy 18, because the Samaritans, what they did was

they took, or they believed that the Old Testament was only the first five books of the Bible.

So they took the law of Moses and then they changed it even to where it shows

that the place of worship is on the mountain where they're confined to.

That's where she says, we're supposed to worship on this mountain where you

Jews say you're supposed to worship in Jerusalem.

So the Samaritans changed the word of God to go to Mount Gerizim and worship there.

And for the Jews, this was a severe issue, punishable even by death.

And so when we see these Jews and Samaritans coming together,

it's groundbreaking. It's earth shattering.

But even the Samaritans, even the Samaritans knew that there is something more,

rather someone more to look for.

And that is the Messiah, the one who would make all things new,

the one who would redeem all the past of our messy lives, the one who would

make things understandable for us.

So coming off the hills, we should get started. Coming off the hills of the

public display of baptism, the public display of obedience and faith to the

kindness of God shown in Christ Jesus.

Today, again, I want to talk about the power of a testimony as we continue in

John chapter four with the Samaritan woman.

Because one person's testimony, one person's testimony, many were brought to salvation.

A whole city was changed.

So as soon as Christ identifies himself here in verse 26, I who speak to you am he.

The disciples come back. Just then his disciples came back, verse 27,

and they marveled that he was talking with the woman, but no one said anything.

And as Ben mentioned last week, whenever in the history of the Bible,

whenever a man stumbled upon a woman at the well, there for some reason seemed

to be a romantic connection.

So many of them in history got married.

For whatever reason, there's something magical in the water.

So when the disciples walk up to this, they see this and like,

what is happening? What is going on here? In the middle of the day,

Jesus and this woman, alone, at a well, something's happening here.

But they don't say anything.

They don't say anything. They were amazed, yet no one said anything.

And I think we can be amazed as well and just marvel for a moment at the fact

that Jesus gets one chance to reveal himself to the world as Messiah.

He gets one chance to do it for the first time, right?

He doesn't do it to his disciples. He doesn't reveal himself to the Pharisees

who are beginning to go after him. That's why he's going to Samaria.

He doesn't do it to the Jewish people collectively, but he does it to this Samaritan

woman, this rejected, downcast, low self-esteem, avoiding people at all cost woman.

This woman who was full of sin, full of shame, but who will be used to be a witness to many.

And the whole city will be changed.

So with this revelation, look at her response in verse 28.

Verse 28. So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to

the people, come see a man. She left her water jar.

The jar that was her physical source of life that she was using to provide for

herself and whatever family unit she was in at the time was probably the only

thing she owned, given her marriage history,

bouncing around this water jar, dipping into the well, the source of life. She left it.

She left it behind because of her encounter with Jesus.

She received the truth of Christ and left everything behind.

And isn't that such a Jesus thing?

Like the further you follow Jesus, the more you have to leave behind.

The further you follow him, the more steps you take with him,

the more you realize, I need to let go of this.

I need to let go of this. The more you leave behind.

And many of you here today left things behind to plant this church.

We left family. We left our community. We left our friends and our neighbors and our schools.

We left things behind to follow Jesus. And this is only the start.

This is only the start because we'll continue to have to leave more things behind

to follow the real Jesus.

And we'll be happy to do so because he's worth it. Amen.

So it prompts us to ask, what do we need to leave behind? The woman left her water jar.

We've left some things, but what else? What do we need to leave behind?

Maybe it's sin and shame, like the woman. Maybe it's fear of gospel conversations.

Maybe you don't know enough theology. Maybe you're not the most fluid with your speech.

I can attest. We can talk afterwards. I'll be happy to coach you through it.

But maybe you're fearful of

rejection or losing popularity or losing friends, but she counts the cost.

If this woman can leave everything behind and go into town, into the middle

of town, then there's certainly hope for you and me, right?

The woman left with urgency, she left with boldness, and she left with freedom.

This woman was trying so hard to hide and avoid people, but she went with urgency,

leaving her bucket behind.

She went with boldness into the middle of town and began telling everyone about

everything, about this man, Jesus.

And then she went with freedom because she not only left her life source behind,

but she left all of her sin, all of her shame there with Jesus.

Zephaniah 3.19, one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament,

he teaches this, that when the Messiah comes, he will replace their shame with honor.

Who he will replace, that's hard to say, their shame with honor.

And that's what happens here. She goes and tells a story of how God changed

her shame and has become honor and praise. And she goes and tells the city about

what he has done. Just like what he's saying, what he's done.

My sins are forgiven. My future is heaven.

Praise God for what he's done. This is what she does. And God can do the same

with your story, with your pain, with your sin.

Give it to him. Let him replace. Let him replace it with honor.

Let him replace it with honor. He can take your, this is kind of cheesy.

He can take your testing and make it your testimony.

We'll work on that. He can take your testing and make it your testimony.

Truly, look at this woman. Look at this woman.

She went into town and said to the people, verse 29, come and see this man I

just met who told me everything I did.

And just imagine for a second being one of the members in that town that this

woman, that woman comes in, says, I found a man.

Okay. Yeah, we bet you did. We bet you did.

But she continues. But she continues. Her newfound faith and her holy zeal carried

her on to magnify the name of Christ. She wasn't scared. She wasn't timid.

She knew that if she could at least persuade them to seek for themselves what

she had already found in Christ, what she had already knew to be true about

Christ, she knew that they would find way more than what she could tell them.

This is why our mission statement at Christ Church is make, mature,

and mobilize disciples because this is a message that we have to share.

We have to go into the middle of town with boldness and urgency and freedom

and say, look at what he's done.

He's taken my shame and replaced it with honor.

We testify to his kindness.

And this is the cycle of discipleship, right?

That she confesses, she believes that Jesus is the Messiah.

And then she goes and tells the story. She was made and then she was very, very shortly matured.

And then she went and made more disciples, calling them, come and see this man,

the whole city, not like Nicodemus who kept it to himself.

Must be like the woman who goes and tells everybody. Because we see the impact that it had.

The whole city came to Jesus and many believed.

Which brings us to our second point, the town.

So we're looking at the power of a testimony in the woman that impacts the town.

And we'll finally look at the Savior. But one person's testimony from her life-changing

encounter with Jesus changed a whole city.

Verse 39. See with me. We're going to jump down. We're going to continue.

There's two scenes happening, but we're going to jump down to verse 39 and we'll

come back up to verse 31 later.

But many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony.

The town responded to the words of this woman's testimony and to connect verse

30 and verse 40 here, verse 30, they went out of the town and were coming to

him, verse 40, there's a break in the scene there.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days.

This, again, is so unbelievably countercultural to the times there,

that the Jews and Samaritans would be interacting like this.

You saw this in the woman's response to Jesus.

What does a Jew have doing, asking me, a Samaritan woman, for water?

They don't interact. So for them, the Samaritans to invite Jesus to stay with them is remarkable.

Horrible the the disciples saw this when they came and saw jesus talking to

the woman they they marveled right they were in disbelief and i'm sure the the

disciples here were even even more so like hey jesus man like we're not we're

not really staying here the night are we like we're

just passing through we're just we're just passing through right like,

Again, Jesus breaking down the walls of hostility. This is what he does.

Inviting people to know him and love him and follow him.

The disciples' minds are blown at what is happening.

But this is the far, far out plan that Jesus had when he back at the beginning

of the chapter said, I had to go to Samaria.

They had to go to Samaria.

Samaritan people, they heard the word of Jesus and they believed.

They ended up staying two days with them, sure enough, as Jesus would have had

it. They stayed. Look at verse 41.

And many more believed because of his word.

Jesus speaking his word. Romans 10, 17 says, faith comes by hearing and hearing

through the word of Christ.

And earlier, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

But how will they call on him who they have not believed?

And how will they believe if they have not heard? And how can they hear if it's

not preached? And how can it be preached if no one is sent?

Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

So we are to deliver this message so that people can hear it,

so that they can believe it.

Because it's not our words. We're testifying to the kindness of God.

Like, I didn't change my morals. I didn't changed my life. God changed everything about me.

The way I think, the way I see things, the way I feel, he changed everything.

And that's what he did for this woman. He took her shame and replaced it with honor.

So as the Samaritan's people, verse 42, as their hearts are filled with joy

and life, they said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe.

For we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.

We've heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.

Now the whole town, the whole city has a testimony of their encounter and interaction with Jesus.

If there's something that we can learn from this, that there is power,

there is clarity, and there is sufficiency in the word of Jesus, in the word of God.

There's power, there's clarity, and sufficiency. And so the challenge,

the exhortation for us from this mini story and this big story of redemption

is that can we be like the Samaritan woman and let Jesus take our shame and

replace it with honor so that we

can share our testimony and join Jesus in accomplishing his father's work,

which is for a people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation bowing

before the throne, worshiping him.

One person's testimony impacting the lives of many.

This could be you. We're all tasked with this great commission to go and make disciples.

It's not just for the gifted evangelist. It's not just for the outgoing,

strong personality, the weirdo who will talk to people in the elevators.

It's not just for them. That's me.

Not just for them, but it's for the timid. It's for the shy.

It's for those who might be feeling rejected. It's for the non-academic.

It's for the introvert. It's for the downcast and low self-esteem like the woman at the well.

It's for the new believer who simply trusts Jesus with everything.

I'm willing to leave everything behind to follow you.

Which brings us to our last point so that we might fix our eyes on him who is

the most powerful testimony in all of history, the Savior.

Jesus gives us this ultimate testimony with the most power in himself,

the Son of God who came incarnate, the Word of God who came in flesh and dwelt

among us, fully God, fully man,

testifying to the character of the Father.

Jesus is the testimony of the eternal living God. We can see him.

Colossians 1.19, just a couple of verses to help drive this in,

that God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.

Colossians 2.9, for in him, in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

Philippians 2, as Hunter prayed, Jesus being in the very nature of God made

himself nothing by taking on the form of a servant being born in human likeness.

And Hebrews 1, 3 describes, this is one of the prettiest ones in this list.

Jesus is described as the radiance of God's glory, the exact imprint,

the exact representation of his being.

Jesus is the testimony of the living. You want to know what God is like?

Do you want to know what God is like? Look at him.

Look at Jesus. He is him.

The Samaritans saw this. This is indeed the savior of the world.

And the only one who can save the world is the one who created the world.

Is testifying to the Father's character, and He perfectly displays the Father's

character, as Romans 2, 4 says, of it's His loving kindness that is meant to lead us to repentance.

Jesus with the woman at the well, looking at her, speaking to her heart,

drawing out what's deep within her, leading her to repentance.

His loving kindness that is meant to lead us to repentance.

So if you want to see a powerful testimony, look no further than the incarnation

of Christ, who humbled himself and dwelt among us.

The disciples learn this, that we should look no further.

The Samaritan woman teaches this. She shows us this, that we really should look

no further than the Christ and what he teaches.

The disciples learn this as their minds are continuing to just try to capture

what is happening in this moment with these Samaritans.

But Jesus, he does this thing where he uses physical items to teach spiritual

truths, like physical birth with Nicodemus. You must be born again.

You have the water jars. You have the living water.

You have what now is the food.

The disciples went into town to get him food, and they come back.

They see him at the well. We're jumping back to verse 31 to 38 now.

And so I was like, Jesus, you got to eat, man. Like you're tired.

Have some bread with us. Be replenished. Jesus says, I have food that you don't know about.

Food, Jesus says, is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Jesus says to them, pick up your eyes. Pick up your eyes and look.

Look out to the harvest field.

Don't look at the wheat and the grain that you're thinking about that's going

to be ready in four months. Don't look at that. But look with my eyes.

Look with my eyes at the fields that are in front of you, that are ready for harvest.

In the midst of these Samaritan people that were rejected by the Jews,

look at the harvest that is ready.

This is the will of him who sent him.

Jesus is ushering in this new kingdom of heaven harvest by breaking through to the Samaritans.

And as mentioned last week in John 4, 23, the Father is seeking those who will

worship him in spirit and truth.

God is pursuing people. He's preparing the fields for harvest.

And this is why Jesus had to go through Samaria to show his disciples,

to show the Samaritan rejects, to show the world, to show me the perfect, limitless,

boundless, unconditional love of the Father.

This is why Jesus had to go to Samaria.

Jesus is the living testimony of God's character and God's plan of redemption

that since eternity past, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have been

preparing the people for this harvest.

The creation of the world, the Trinity has had this mapped out and planned,

a way of redemption back to the creator of the universe so that we might be

in right relation with him.

There is power in a testimony. We testify to God's kindness in Christ Jesus.

We were dead in sin, just like the Samaritan woman, but God made us alive in Christ. Amen.

Amen. My way is application as we close. The first question,

have you yourself believed and said that this Jesus is indeed the Savior of the world?

Have you met him? Have you encountered him? Have you interacted with him and

realized that he indeed is the Savior of the world? If you haven't, this is for you.

Receive the truth of what is written here. Receive the truth of who he is,

indeed the Savior of the world.

For those in Christ, here's the challenge for you. Are you looking at the harvest

field right in front of you?

Lift up your eyes, Jesus says. Look at the fields.

God has prepared a harvest where you least expect it, just like the disciples,

where you least expect it and in whom you least expect it to be.

So lift your eyes, look to the harvest field.

It could be at your workplace, in your neighborhood, at your school,

the farthest reach that you think there's no chance this person could believe in the gospel.

God might have prepared the harvest so that the reaper and the sower might rejoice together.

Because he's preordained. He's already done the work. He's already done the work.

Now he's inviting us to just join him in accomplishing his mission.

So lift your eyes to the field, which is ready for harvest and let's join him in his work. Let's pray.

Our father in heaven, your name is holy.

Your grace is sufficient. Your power is made perfect in our weakness.

So Lord, we ask that you would help us to be like this woman,

to go with urgency and boldness and freedom.

Lord, remembering that you have truly taken all of our sin, all of our shame

and replaced it with honor.

Father, be with us as we go about our days throughout the week here,

that we might be alert and aware to the fields of harvest that you have prepared for us to walk in.

Lord, we pray that the gospel message would be received, that people would call

on the name of the Lord and say, we now know, not because of just what you said,

but because we have heard from him himself.

Would you give us people this week to share this message with as we approach Easter Sunday?

We celebrate your goodness, Father. We celebrate your goodness,

and it's in Jesus' name And we pray, amen.