Never Thirst Again (John 4:1-26)

John chapter 4, starting in verse 1.

John 4 · chapter mention

When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John, though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were, he left Judea and went again to Galilee.

He had to travel through Samaria, so he came to a town of Samaria called Sikar, near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well.

It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Give me a drink, Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

She asked him.

For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Jesus answered, If you knew the gift of God and who was saying to you, Give me a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you living water.

Sir, said the woman, you don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep.

So where do you get this living water?

You aren't greater than our father Jacob, are you?

He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.

And Jesus said, Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water I will give him will never thirst get thirsty again.

In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.

Sir, the woman said to him, Give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and come here and draw water.

Go call your husband, he told her, and come back here.

I don't have a husband, she answered.

You have correctly said I don't have a husband, Jesus said, for you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.

What you have said is true.

Sir, the woman replied, I see that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say the place to worship is in Jerusalem.

And Jesus told her, Believe me, woman, an hour 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 because salvation is from the Jews.

But an hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

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

When he comes, he will explain everything to us.

Jesus told her, I, the one speaking to you, am He.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you for your goodness.

And I ask, Lord, that as we study your word, that you would fill me with your spirit to teach your word.

You would fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly divide and discern what is of you.

I ask, Lord, that we would uh draw closer to you, wherever place that we are coming from today, Lord, that we would draw closer to you, that we would be conformed more to your image.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.

Alright, go ahead and have a seat.

So we are on a journey in the book of John.

We had an epic intro.

In the beginning was a word, the word with God, the word was God.

Continuing forward with that.

And then we had a miracle in Cana, and then a trip down to Jerusalem, where Jesus cleansed the temple and spoke to Nicodemus, one of the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

And then it looks like they were baptizing in Judea, if we saw from last week's passage.

And here we see him on the move again.

Why is he on the move again?

We see this at the very beginning.

Jesus learned the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John.

Although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were.

So this was what covered very, very, very well last week on that whole paradigm of Jesus baptizing, where it was actually his disciples baptizing, but that was happening in Judea, and the Pharisees came to John, who was saying, Hey, they're baptized, Jesus is baptizing more people than you.

And John's like, Yes, we're winning, and which is the best answer ever.

But what we see here, number one, is that the Pharisees don't have it quite right.

Jesus wasn't baptizing himself, but his disciples were, which is really good practice for when Jesus ascends to heaven and the disciples keep on baptizing.

But he's leaving, he's leaving their turf.

And we're gonna see through the book of John lots of uncomfortable scenarios where Jesus enters Jerusalem and has collisions with the religious leaders there and leaves.

And some of them are to the point where he has to come in secretly because they're waiting for him to come to the religious feast to worship God so they can kill him.

How do you get to that point?

But having that said, he has that rhythm in here, and so he's leaving Judea because he's setting, in their eyes, it seems, he's setting up shop on their turf.

So in Judea here, because John the Baptist was up in the wilderness, not much of a threat, he's also a really weird dude.

And so, although the people saw him as a prophet, he is apart from their backyard.

Here Jesus is doing miracles and uh such and healing and cleansing temples in their backyard.

And so, because of that, he has to go to Galilee, and he had to travel through Samaria.

And if you are one of John's readers around that time, you're like, and you're Jewish, you're like, oh, that's the worst.

But we go, okay, he had to go through Samaria.

So I had a map.

This is the same map we've been using for consistency's sake, and we see here Judea, and he's going to Galilee.

What's between Galilee and Judea?

Samaria.

Sorry, let me let me be cris for a minute.

What's the uh Samaria?

So, yes, he has to go through Samaria.

What's the big deal with Samaria?

They have a history, they have they they have a little bit of a feud going on.

What's the deal with that?

Okay, we could do a 40-minute thing on the history of Samaria.

We cannot do that today.

And I don't think you would find it that interesting.

But ultimately, here's the the gist of it.

Divided kingdom.

Solomon, his son, Rehoboam, had the southern kingdom called Judah.

And Jeroboam, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, why?

Uh, had the northern kingdom called Israel, sometimes called Samaria.

That gets confusing.

Ultimately, when the northern kingdom Israel is taken captive by the Assyrians in 721-ish BC, they take other people from all over the Assyrian Empire and take that melting pot, boom, right into that northern kingdom, because you can't just let the land go.

It actually needs to continue.

But by having that melting pot, you don't establish necessarily a unified, codified cultural identity like was there before and like to rebel against the king of Assyria.

And so all of these people gathered into the northern kingdom.

We see that in 2 Kings 17 for you guys to check out later on that.

And the problem with that is it didn't go well, lions kept attacking them.

Yeah, okay.

And that's that's a very specific problem.

But they best thing they can think of, well, we just need priests to teach them the ways of the God of this land so that they can worship the God of this land okay and be appeased and the lions don't attack them anymore.

Rest assured, the lions have been hunted into extinction, so if you go to Israel today, you will not be attacked by lions.

But with that, you have a group of people, therefore, who worshiped their own gods and worshiped God as they were taught, but not from the perspective of their ancestry and heritage, that they kind of had to uh anachronistically co-op into a new history so that that would work out.

Okay, having all that said, um, here's what makes it more awkward.

Between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the aptly titled Intertestamental period, you have the uh kingdom of the Maccabees, which was not just one dude, Hanukkah, yeah, other things.

There was actually multiple kings leading up to under Herod the Great's dad, who kind of took over that whole thing and smushed it together under the Roman Empire.

One of those kings, John Hyrcanus, he did a thing.

He went to Samaria to Mount Gerizim and kind of destroyed their city and burned their temple to the ground.

Yeah, uh, so that there's a there's a bit of a history there with that.

That's you we get some information with Josephus, which is kind of weird.

But ultimately, there are ruins at Mount Gerizim of a Samaritan temple, and the Jewish king wiped it off the face of the earth.

So that causes tension.

And so there's a lot of tension with that.

And the best way that we can describe this is we see in Luke 9, 51 through 55, we see this in action.

At that moment, Jesus is on the move, the days were coming for a close for Jesus to be taken up, and he determined to journey to Jerusalem.

He sent messengers ahead of himself, and on the journey they entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him.

But they did not welcome him because he would determine to journey to Jerusalem.

So he sent out messengers ahead, and the Samaritans are like, Oh, where are you going?

To Jerusalem.

No, you ain't staying here.

There's tension on that side.

Let's make it worse.

The disciples, James and John, saw this, and they said, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?

That's what you call the law of escalation, by the way.

And he turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.

So that is a good snapshot of the relationship between the Samaritans and the Jews at that time.

It is uh frigid at that point in time.

If we want to have a little bit of a contemporary feel in that, nothing to do with the origin, but more with the gentle animosity that may be happening there.

Okay, we're North County people, right?

Slow buggy a little bit with their bike lanes, their Teslas, driving up the prices here of the housing community, so irritating, so frustrating, all the different things and the things and news and everything.

Good.

And then slow is like, I kind of forgot North County was there until I have to drive through it.

And that's pretty much an interesting relationship with that.

The good news is that even in North County, we have to make the pilgrimage three times a year to Costco.

So, with that, you get a little bit of that friction, multiply that by a thousand, and that's what we're dealing with here.

So, as we're going through this, keep an eye on a couple of things.

On this woman's understanding of Jesus compared to how Jesus is revealing himself.

That is the big push and pull of this passage.

How she perceives and understands him, and how he is revealing himself.

So, looking at this, we see that scene.

He has to go through Samaria.

John's audience groans, and he comes to a town of Samaria called Sikar, near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph.

We see in Genesis 48, 22, that uh Joseph getting the double portion, he has two half tribes, and then also Jacob gave him an extra property that he had taken from the Amorites here.

So, given there, near called Sichar, uh some historians believe that that is near Shechem, which makes sense what the map you don't have to bring it up, it's fine.

Uh but it's around Gerizim, that the whole area, it's in some area.

So, with that, he came to a town of Samaria called Sikar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph in verse 6.

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well.

It was about noon.

So we see here Jesus being fully God and yet fully human, got fully tired, and that's it's a good thing to see with that, because you know, there around the beginning of the century and on onward, uh the beginning of the century of the millennium there, we see people starting to think that Jesus may have just been a spirit, that he wasn't fully man, he was fully God but not fully man, he only appeared to be fully man.

Well, he's tired, and so that's kind of good to see in that little side note with that.

But he sat down at the well and it was about noon.

And a woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Okay, we're setting the stage here.

A lot of ideas of why the woman of Samaria is coming to draw water at noon.

I have an ironclad reason for why this is happening that I am confident is true.

She needed water.

Wheel, okay.

Certain chunk of preaching history loves the uh the scarlet woman trope, this idea that there is a woman of ill repute and Jesus is swooping in to save her from that and all that stuff.

Uh and so that's why it's like, well, clearly she's coming at noon because she is an outcast in her society.

The only problem with that is that later in the passage next week, she goes to her society and they have no problem believing her and coming to see Jesus.

Seems a little weird with that, so ultimately we don't know.

And this is the difficulty with these passages, is they are so narrative focused that we may have heard these stories over and over and over, and it's kind of become a hallmark movie in our minds.

And so, kind of having to separate and look and go, what does it actually say?

And so we don't know why she's there at noon, except that well, she needed water.

So, with that, she came to draw water, and Jesus says, Give me a drink.

Because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

Her response here, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

She asked him.

And then John tells us, Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

The issue here is the Jew Samaritan paradigm here.

And so Jesus says, Give me a drink.

And she's like, Are you?

I'm sorry, are you talking to me?

You want a drink from me?

Are you kidding me?

So, a couple things with that.

Number one, the fact he's talking to her is a big deal because Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Do you know how I know that?

Because the text says Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

So, but also culturally, uh, many believe that they wouldn't drink from a vessel, from a so from a Samaritan.

It's a really big cultural divide with that.

So he's breaking all kinds of boundaries.

But you know what's cool with that?

He is leading this interaction, first of all, by interacting.

And secondly, by saying, I need something from you.

That's kind of interesting.

He starts off by going, hey, can I have some water?

He has a temporary need, he is asking from her, which is a really cool way to engage in conversation in that way.

It opens up that thing, although it confuses her to no end here.

How are you, a Jew, asking for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

So, what is her first understanding of Jesus?

A Jewish man.

That's what she sees there.

A weird one who's asking her for water, but a Jewish man nonetheless.

That's all she sees.

How does Jesus respond?

Verse 10.

If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you living water.

So you're really asking me for water?

What how why are you doing that?

And Jesus says, if you knew.

Kind of a triggering statement if you got some wounds in that area.

Basically, he's leading off here by saying, if you knew the important thing, you would have asked me a different thing.

Which is when you already have that chip on your shoulder because you're a Samaritan and here and you have the Jews with that, that's a pretty rough way to lead into that.

But he's taking her beyond her understanding of this.

Because the way that I would take that is, oh good, here's another man juice blaning this to me.

And that's not what is necessarily happening.

He's taking it beyond that and saying, if you knew the gift of God, and if you knew who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you living water.

He led with, Can I have some temporary water?

I'm thirsty.

And she's like, Are you talking to me?

Are you kidding me?

And he says, If you knew who I am, you'd be asking me for water.

Continuing that conversation, revealing he is more than just what she sees.

And he said, she says, in verse 11, Sir, said the woman, you don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep.

So where do you get this living water?

You aren't greater than our father Jacob, are you?

He gave us the well, drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.

So, again, sir, you don't even have a bucket and the well is deep.

So, basically, he said she's he is saying, if you knew who was talking to you, you would ask for water.

And she's like, I don't think you have what it takes to get water.

Clearly, you don't understand that.

Continuing to shape this understanding that we're talking, we're not talking about temporary water here.

Living water would be that idea of moving water, which tends to be clear and clean as long as you are upstream, and that is generally seen as fresh, and they're at a well, not living water, but ultimately she's like, Look, you don't you don't even have the requirement to do what you said that I should be asking you for.

And then verse 12, you aren't greater than our father Jacob, are you?

He gave us the well, drank from it for himself, as did his sons and livestock.

Okay, we did that background of the Samaritans, right?

Mixed multitude came from all over, planted in there, and here you have the uh subversive narrative that's coming out here because as he led with if you knew you would ask me, she's pushing back with our father, Jacob, which historically Samaritans may claim that lineage, but don't necessarily have that lineage.

She is asserting and establishing back, backwards and establishing her right and her identity there as someone who belongs there.

And the reason why I'm pointing that out is she will keep pointing back, and he's going to keep pointing forward.

And so there, when he leads with, if you knew this, you'd ask me, and she's basically saying, Well, you're not father, you're not greater than our father, Jacob, the patriarch, the one who establishes me as having a right to be here, which you Jews do not recognize.

So, what is Jesus?

And it says, You he gave us this well, he drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.

And Jesus says in verse 13, everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again.

Whoever drinks from the water I will give him will never get thirsty again.

In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.

So here he's revealing what he is talking about.

I should say as well, for those of you who were here a few weeks ago when Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus, these passages are like opposite sides of the same coin.

To where Jesus is speaking to somebody using their language that they do not understand what on earth he is talking about, because he is talking about eternal things and not temporary things.

He is talking about uh future things and not uh historical things, and so, and their traditions with that.

So everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again.

Whoever drinks from the water, notice too, he uses all-encompassing language there.

Everyone who drinks from the water, this water will get thirsty again.

Whoever drinks from the water I give will never get thirsty again.

He doesn't say Jews, Samaritans, everybody who drinks from this, this is temporary water.

The water I give, you will never thirst again.

In fact, the water I give becomes a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.

So in that moment, he is revealing himself as greater than the patriarch Jacob.

Because she's saying, Look, Jacob gave us this well, also gave me my right to be here.

And he says, Jacob gave you something temporary.

What I give is eternal.

That's a really big claim.

We look back.

At the Gospels and go, well, yeah, because Jesus is God.

What's the answer in church?

Jesus.

But in this moment, it is mind-blowing.

In the same way that when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, the Jewish religious leader in Jerusalem, and he's saying, You have to be born again, and the guy's like, What are you talking about?

How can you enter your mother's womb again?

And in the same way here, he's talking about water, something she's familiar with.

Whoever drinks from this water I give will never get thirsty again.

He gives something superior to what their traditions and lineage can offer.

So, she says in verse 15, Sir the woman said to him, Give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water.

Okay.

You ever been in those situations where you have the salesperson, like you try so hard at the grocery store or something, not to make eye contact, and you suddenly I'm really busy with my phone or something like that.

But then I look up and they got me.

And then there's a pitch, and the different things with that, and I'm just like, I'm sorry, I just and there's a certain point where you're basically like, okay, what do you just just give me your pamphlet?

Good, what do you have?

Okay, let's do this.

I kind of to a certain extent see her statement in 15 as a prove it.

We've talked before in this book about this idea of signs, of Jesus giving signs, not just miracles and cool party tricks, but rather pointing to his divinity.

And so when he's saying he has eternal water that that makes it so that you won't get thirsty again, it's like, okay, sure, give me the water.

We can do this.

I'd like to see this.

And in what would potentially, in that moment, if you're this woman, be an infuriating fashion, he doesn't go, okay, here you go.

Here's what I'm talking about, here it is.

He goes, Hey, go call your husband and then come back and we'll talk, the three of us will talk.

Um, wow.

So go call your husband and come back here.

I don't have a husband, she answered.

And he says, You have correctly said, I don't have a husband, Jesus said.

For you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.

What you have said is true.

So she's had five husbands, and now she is cohabitating with someone who's not her husband.

Uh, we don't know the backstory of that, we don't know if there were deaths, we don't know if there were divorces.

I will say this.

We lived in the South for five years, and this ain't even normal there.

Five husbands, and then we're on the next one.

That's definitely not a normal behavior.

But it is interesting that he he pulls out that point.

Today, if this happened today, they'd be like, What are you like, are you creeping on my socials?

Like, how do you know this thing?

But here, it's an it's he's demonstrating something he could not possibly know otherwise.

And that's pretty intense.

Here's what I love about this is Jesus is leaning into a conversation that is very volatile.

Talking with a Samaritan, he being a Jew.

He's basically saying, You're lacking something, and now he's saying, I'm greater than your alleged heritage.

And now he is just going straight for the wound here, which is pretty intense.

I know you don't have a husband.

You have had five husbands.

The man you now have is not your husband.

What you have said is true.

You know what's cool about this?

He didn't lead with that.

That seems like a small thing, but it's a big thing.

And that he didn't basically be like, oh, hey, can I have a drink?

By the way, I know that you're now shacking up with this guy who's not your husband, and you had five husbands before that.

So let's talk about that and get your house in order.

He initiates conversation by starting with, I need water from you, which crosses cultural barriers.

And then he is saying, if you knew who I am, you would ask for water from me.

And then he's saying, Look, Jacob could only go so far, by the way, he's dead.

And I can give you living water that will last forever.

That'll make somebody spring up a well of water for eternal life.

And when she goes, Okay, yeah, sure, give me the water, he says, Go call your husband, and points out to this this super intense thing.

How does she what does she respond with?

Sir, the woman replied, I see that you are a prophet.

So, in her eyes, she has now gone to understanding him as a really weird Jewish man to a prophet who knows things about her that he could not possibly otherwise know.

He uh it is which is an aspect of that.

I believe that he's she's gonna go back to her town and say, He told me everything that I knew about myself.

All these, I don't remember the exact wording, but it was the uh, yeah, he told me everything I ever did in verse 39.

So clearly she sees that he knows things about this that he otherwise could not possibly know.

So he's no longer just a random Jewish dude, he's a prophet.

And she goes, Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.

So here's the question.

Since you know so much, we worshiped on this mountain, Gerizim.

We had a temple there.

You Jews destroyed it, by the way.

You Jews say the place to worship is in Jerusalem.

Answer me this.

She goes back to the distinction, to the friction, to the problem of their heritage, not the problem of her need that he just brought up.

So, rather than going, yeah, my left my life is not going like I planned it.

Most people, I'll just put it this way, when they are like six years old, don't go, one day I would like to have six spouses.

That's not something that happens.

So life is not going according to plan, but she goes back.

Back to the point of contention.

And our culture doesn't do that at all.

So that's the good news.

No, that's a constant thing.

So with that, she wants the answer, not grasping that he is the answer.

So, what does he say in verse 21?

Believe me, woman, an hour 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 because salvation is from the Jews.

But an hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

She points back, he points ahead.

Points ahead to the hour is coming.

You won't be worshiping on this mountain or in Jerusalem, superseding the geography, superseding the cultural friction of that day, but rather how are they going to worship in spirit and in truth?

I love too, that's interesting in verse 22.

You Samaritans worship what you don't know.

We worship what we do know because salvation of the Jews.

He doesn't quite fall for the your heart's in the right place.

So you're basically there.

Points out, look, you're worshiping what you're, I get what you're worshiping, you're worshiping what you don't know.

The Jews are looking for the Messiah because that was the promise through the prophets, through the Lord, through the Jewish lineage.

And the reason why I point that out, because this is one of those, this is for free that you can chew on on your own time.

You know who keeps coming up in this passage?

Jacob.

Jacob is one of two very contentious brothers, right?

Two brothers don't like each other so much.

Why not?

Because one keeps, well, how do I know that?

One keeps ripping off the other one, the other promises to kill that one.

Kind of a big deal.

And so, and they keep vying for an inheritance from their father.

But what is important is that the deliverer being typified by Joseph is coming ahead as the sons of one of these two brothers.

Interesting parallels to the Jews and the Samaritans.

Why on earth does Jacob keep coming up?

He's one of the two brothers struggling for validation in their heritage, when in reality the deliver is coming ahead.

So, Jesus points out here, you worship you Samaritans worship what you don't know.

We worship what we do know because salvation is from the Jews.

An hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

It's not a what, it is a how.

It's not a who you are, it is a how you are to worship in spirit and in truth.

And again, this sounds very parallel to me to John chapter 3 when Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and he's using these words of the spirit and the water being born again.

John 3 · chapter mention

And here it's spirit and truth, and saying it has nothing to do with the place and everything to do with how you worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

Interesting thing is that in verse 20, she says, Our Father is worshipped.

And in verse 23, Jesus responds with, The Father wants such people to worship him.

Put yourself in the position of a Samaritan.

Constant friction with the Jews, on top of the Romans, by the way, that's a lot.

Now you have this conversation, and in the midst of all of this, where he is not only a Jewish man who is a prophet, pointing out her greatest struggles and pointing out that she doesn't have what is necessary, then drops, the father wants such people to worship him.

Why does that matter?

Because he's about to reveal himself as the Messiah in no uncertain terms to this woman.

So this Samaritan woman with a bit of a crazy background with that, he is telling her the father wants her worshiping in spirit and in truth in this way.

Which is crazy.

It's not about, and you know, I hate to say this, but you know, the the person with the upper hand tends to try to craft the narrative.

And so you would kind of expect the Jewish man in this situation to be saying, No, you gotta be Jewish, and then you can worship the Father and those things.

And he's the one saying it doesn't matter.

He's the one saying the hour is coming when it won't matter where, but how.

Spirit and in truth, those two in unison, not just in spirit, not just uh, oh heart's in the right place, and we're all gone one road to God and we're working that way.

And even though it's not about a place, it just doesn't matter.

But also in truth.

And the woman said her response, look, well, I know when the Messiah is coming.

When he comes, he'll explain everything to us.

There's a nice throw up your hand statement.

Uh, Messiah is Hebrew, Christ is Greek, same word.

It is the promised uh Savior that is coming.

So, and she is again pointing this for the first time, though, ahead, not back, and saying, look, well, when the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us.

And Jesus says, I the one speaking to you, am He.

That's pretty epic that we have here.

One of the first, basically the first in the Gospel of John, full-on explan, like explicit, I am the Messiah here in this situation, which is so cool.

And he is telling this woman that God the Father wants her to worship in spirit and in truth.

This is not the candidate we would have expected for the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah.

There is a super weird cultural thing that we have in the church, Bixie Church.

Blow the I I can't wrap my head around what people are like, oh, this person is just so close to salvation.

You wouldn't say that about Paul.

And well, he was close to salvation.

What is it that makes someone so close to salvation?

It's because they're a nice person.

Well, the Mormons have a speed on that, sorry.

Uh is it because they uh are charismatic?

Is it because their life is in ruins, all these different things?

We have no idea.

We just don't know.

And the Lord knows, and that is amazing, because he is good at reaching people in ways that we couldn't.

Honestly, by a show of hands, if you were Jesus in this situation, would you have done things this way?

No.

This is uh this is not like they don't write this up in the street evangelism books.

That's not exactly the path that we take, but it is what Jesus did, he needed to do in order to reveal himself.

Why does this matter?

Why should we care?

Jesus is revealing himself to be superior to the patriarchs, he is revealing himself to supersede heritage and cultural friction in that moment, Jew Samaritan, and he is revealing himself as the source of eternal life.

That is a big deal.

In our day, we're like, well, yeah, that's what he does.

That's Jesus' job.

But in that moment, that is a big deal, and he is revealing that in a very unexpected way.

So, what is our big profound conclusion?

Um, it was said in John 3, I'll just read it, that God loved the world in this way.

He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

What we pull from this is the absolute profundity, the word, don't look it up, that Jesus is all we need in order to be made right with God.

He's everything.

It's not Jesus and they try that in the book of Acts, by the way, it doesn't go well.

It's not uh get your life together, and then we'll talk about it.

Because you notice that he doesn't say, you know what we have?

We have a six-week uh marriage counseling class.

I'd like you to complete that, and then at the end, I will reveal to my reveal to you myself as the Messiah.

Just means your word is she's at.

Jesus is everything, there is no Jesus plus, and that's the beauty of these kinds of passage passages, is he is coming in to somebody's world who is predisposed to not listen and not want to hear it and not care.

And because he is Jesus, he is revealing himself as the Messiah, and this is like this is like when they break a movie into two pieces at the end of the first, like uh you take a book and they're gonna make a movie out of it, and they make it into two movies so they can make more money.

Um, the end of the first movie is always a huge cliffhanger with no resolution.

That's where we're at right now, because next week you get to see what happens as a result of this res of this revelation.

But that's just something.

Let us never um get inoculated to the miraculous aspect of this, of how cool it is that Jesus, who is God in the flesh, is revealing himself as the way to be made right with God.

And he is doing so in such a way that he is not bound by the cultural norms of that day.

He doesn't have to play Earth's game.

And that is cool to see with that.

Why does this work?

Because he's Jesus.

This is not a formula for what you should, therefore, go and do, because if you do it this way, then you get the results.

The results are in the hands of God through the work of the Holy Spirit, and our job is to basically joyfully proclaim the new life we have in Him.

But just to close in this, it is a beautiful thing that Jesus is loving enough to reveal the lack in us, to reveal how we don't measure up, to reveal that we can't be made right with God on our own merits, to reveal that our heritage and our church background and what we do isn't gonna cut it in terms of being made right with God.

It is only through faith and confession in Jesus as the Messiah that one can be made right with God.

And there is no plan B with that.

But the beauty in that is plan A is so simple and so attainable for everybody, from a Jewish leader in Jerusalem to a Samaritan woman at a well.

So, with that in mind, if you have not made that decision to follow Jesus, it is as simple as confession and belief, as simple as saying yes to what is presented to you by the Holy Spirit.

So let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you that salvation comes from you and you alone, that you have made it available to all through the blood of your Son.

I thank you that salvation comes through confession and belief in Jesus, in him as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

That you don't want us to get cleaned up first before coming to Jesus, because that won't cut it.

But rather, coming to Jesus is what is key.

I ask, Lord, that by your spirit, first of all, for those who have not made that decision, that by your spirit you would be stirring up the desire within them in a way that only you can.

And I ask, Lord, for those of us who do know you, that by your spirit you would stir up our just awe and excitement and joy for the new life you have given us, for the righteousness you have imparted to us through your Son.

Let us never become numb to that and never become so deafened by the friction of this life and the things going on and the noise that we forget to sit quietly with you in the gospel.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.