An Awkward Conversation (John 4:16-26)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.440 --> 00:00:04.879 Please remain standing if you're able, and let's turn to John, chapter four 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:18.429 and continue our reflection and exhortation from John for Miss Woman, this for this 3 00:00:18.589 --> 00:00:28.420 meeting Jesus has with this woman at the well. I'll begin in verse seven 4 00:00:28.579 --> 00:00:35.700 and Read Through Verse Verse Twenty Six, but the sermon will focus particularly on 5 00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:40.490 sixteen through twenty six. So I'm going to begin reading here in John. 6 00:00:40.689 --> 00:00:47.530 For Verse Seven, a woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said 7 00:00:47.570 --> 00:00:50.759 to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into 8 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:55.200 the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is 9 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:59.560 it that you would Jew ask for a drink from me, a woman of 10 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:06.670 Samaria, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if 11 00:01:06.709 --> 00:01:10.069 you knew the Gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, 12 00:01:10.349 --> 00:01:14.069 give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have 13 00:01:14.189 --> 00:01:18.620 given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have 14 00:01:18.739 --> 00:01:21.900 nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do you get 15 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:26.260 that living water? Are You greater than our Father Jacob? He gave us 16 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:30.140 the well and drank from it himself, as did his son's in his livestock. 17 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:34.129 Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty 18 00:01:34.250 --> 00:01:38.810 again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be 19 00:01:38.010 --> 00:01:42.689 thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a 20 00:01:42.890 --> 00:01:49.239 spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, 21 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:53.120 sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have 22 00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:59.159 to come here to draw water. Jesus said to her, go call your 23 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:02.989 husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. 24 00:02:04.030 --> 00:02:07.669 Jesus said to her, you are right in saying I have no husband, 25 00:02:08.069 --> 00:02:12.870 for you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your 26 00:02:12.909 --> 00:02:17.340 husband. What you have said is true. The woman said to him, 27 00:02:17.740 --> 00:02:22.900 Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our Father's worshiped on this 28 00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:25.979 mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to 29 00:02:27.099 --> 00:02:31.370 worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is 30 00:02:31.490 --> 00:02:36.530 coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father. 31 00:02:37.610 --> 00:02:40.409 You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for 32 00:02:40.530 --> 00:02:45.120 salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now 33 00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:49.159 here, when the true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and truth, 34 00:02:49.800 --> 00:02:53.439 for the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and 35 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:59.430 those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to 36 00:02:59.469 --> 00:03:01.789 him, I know that the Messiah is coming. He is called the Christ. 37 00:03:02.469 --> 00:03:06.789 When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to 38 00:03:06.830 --> 00:03:12.310 her. I who speak to you, am He sends the Reading of God's 39 00:03:12.349 --> 00:03:16.259 word. You may be seated a title this sermon if you look in your 40 00:03:16.259 --> 00:03:20.180 bulletin's. You don't need to. I'll tell you if you I titled This 41 00:03:20.259 --> 00:03:25.180 sermon and Awkward Conversation, and you could probably guess why. But I'd actually 42 00:03:25.180 --> 00:03:30.449 like to take it back, though. There is perhaps a high likelihood that 43 00:03:30.569 --> 00:03:36.969 this was an awkward conversation. Perhaps not. Perhaps both Jesus and this woman 44 00:03:37.009 --> 00:03:40.639 were equally comfortable with confrontation. It wasn't awkward for either of them. I 45 00:03:40.759 --> 00:03:45.840 don't really know. The more I thought about that, but what we do 46 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:54.639 have is in our text a very strongly a conversation that is confrontational. This 47 00:03:54.789 --> 00:04:00.430 is a very, very confrontational conversation in in a lot of different ways. 48 00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:05.590 This meeting that Jesus has with this woman at the well is not an easygoing 49 00:04:05.710 --> 00:04:10.620 chat to strangers sitting at a bus stop, just waiting for the next thing 50 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:15.539 to happen, sort of catching up or chit chatting. No, from the 51 00:04:15.699 --> 00:04:19.980 very first interaction that we have in Verse Sixteen, we see that Jesus in 52 00:04:20.060 --> 00:04:26.209 this woman at the well or in a confrontational conversation. They are at odds. 53 00:04:26.250 --> 00:04:30.050 Jesus says, give me a drink and she doesn't say how much, 54 00:04:30.089 --> 00:04:34.290 or let me help with this other thing first, or are of what do 55 00:04:34.370 --> 00:04:38.449 you want? Or there's no question. There's no discussion really about the drink 56 00:04:38.490 --> 00:04:42.319 it. It's immediately about their relationship. Right, he says, are she 57 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:46.240 says to him, how is it that you are asking me for a drink? 58 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:49.600 She doesn't even say she'll give him one. She just immediately says there's 59 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:59.110 there's a problem here. And that confrontation continues to begin or to can or 60 00:04:59.189 --> 00:05:03.709 continues on. It continues with Jesus's remark and which he assumes that she and 61 00:05:03.870 --> 00:05:08.980 rightly so, that she does not know the Gift of God. He says 62 00:05:09.100 --> 00:05:14.180 in response to her question, if you knew the Gift of God, parentheses, 63 00:05:14.379 --> 00:05:16.699 which you don't, you would ask of him and he would give you 64 00:05:17.139 --> 00:05:23.930 this eternal water, or living water. In an important thing to note there 65 00:05:24.129 --> 00:05:27.769 is that the gift of God is, yes, the water, but, 66 00:05:27.930 --> 00:05:32.529 even more properly, Jesus himself. You do not know the Gift of God. 67 00:05:33.529 --> 00:05:40.959 He is standing before you. Her response to this is she replies with 68 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:46.399 an assumption about his lack of status and ability. Are You greater than our 69 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:48.639 Father Jacob, she says. Right, you see this back and forth, 70 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:51.829 back and forth. He gave us the will, he drank from it himself, 71 00:05:51.870 --> 00:05:57.350 as did his sons and daughters. Are you better than him? Are 72 00:05:57.389 --> 00:06:00.829 you able to give us something that he did not give us, something that 73 00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:06.379 Jacob has passed down for generation after generation after generation? Well, Jesus answer 74 00:06:06.579 --> 00:06:12.860 is of course yes, he says in verse thirteen and fourteen. Everyone who 75 00:06:12.860 --> 00:06:15.740 drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water 76 00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:21.610 that I will give him will never be thirsty again. In a way, 77 00:06:21.730 --> 00:06:28.649 she kind of accepts this, perhaps assuming the best, but she misunderstands it. 78 00:06:29.730 --> 00:06:33.959 He offers her living water, water that neneever ones runs dry. But 79 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:39.720 what does he say about the water? Look carefully at verse fourteen. It's 80 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:44.120 a water that is internal. The water that I will give him will become 81 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:50.550 in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. This water that 82 00:06:50.670 --> 00:06:56.430 never runs drop dry, begins at least as an as an internal work. 83 00:06:57.389 --> 00:07:00.350 But what does she say? She says, give me this water, that 84 00:07:00.350 --> 00:07:08.779 I don't have to come to this this well again. The confrontation then continues 85 00:07:08.939 --> 00:07:15.180 on when Jesus responds by saying, go call your husband, I have no 86 00:07:15.259 --> 00:07:18.009 husband. You're right, you have no husband. You have fed five husbands 87 00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:23.129 and the husband you are now a lift, is not your husband, the 88 00:07:23.250 --> 00:07:26.769 man you are with. And then, of course, a there's this. 89 00:07:26.889 --> 00:07:30.279 If you've ever felt this awkwardness, be between verses Twenty One and twenty two, 90 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:35.920 where Jesus, I'm sorry, not twenty one and twenty two, nineteen 91 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:40.639 and twenty, where Jesus says this thing about her life and she says, 92 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:45.470 Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. I always kind of track there 93 00:07:45.509 --> 00:07:47.189 and I'm like, okay, she's responding to what he says. She sees 94 00:07:47.350 --> 00:07:53.350 right that he knows her insides, her internal life and things that maybe no 95 00:07:53.430 --> 00:07:57.189 one else knows. But then the next thing she says is kind of weird. 96 00:07:57.350 --> 00:08:01.300 She says our father's worshiped on this mountain and she gets into this discussion 97 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:05.819 about worship. If you had trouble tracking there and you're kind of asking the 98 00:08:05.860 --> 00:08:09.379 back of your mind, why is she saying this? That's a good question. 99 00:08:11.060 --> 00:08:15.730 Why is she saying this? Jesus just exposed her sin and she sort 100 00:08:15.769 --> 00:08:20.329 of tracks left and asks a theology question. Right, this wouldn't be the 101 00:08:20.610 --> 00:08:28.040 last time this would happen. Interestingly, Jesus. However, that does answer 102 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:33.519 her question. As we continue tracking through this story, Jesus accepts her question, 103 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:37.159 but he turns it on her head, on its head rather, and 104 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:41.830 he says, our father's worshiped on this mountain. You say that in Jerusalem. 105 00:08:41.269 --> 00:08:45.669 Is the place, he says. Ultimately, neither of these are going 106 00:08:45.789 --> 00:08:50.110 to matter because God will be worshiped well, through him, is what he's 107 00:08:50.149 --> 00:08:56.580 getting at. He is the one who brings these things and it talks to 108 00:08:56.580 --> 00:08:58.700 her about this worship and she basically says, yeah, I know, yeah, 109 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:01.340 yeah, yeah, I know that the Messiah is coming and he's going 110 00:09:01.379 --> 00:09:07.340 to tell us all this. So she asks this question. I perceive you 111 00:09:07.379 --> 00:09:11.370 are a prophet. I have a theology question. He gives her the answer, 112 00:09:11.169 --> 00:09:16.250 which she then ignores basically and says yeah, yeah, I know, 113 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:20.889 the Messiah is coming and he's going to reveal all things. And then Jesus 114 00:09:20.970 --> 00:09:26.840 says, I am he the one you're talking to, I am the gift 115 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:30.200 of God. I am, he's telling her, the one who gives this 116 00:09:30.360 --> 00:09:35.960 living water. I am the prophet that you are looking for. Like I 117 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:43.710 said, sort of confrontation from beginning to end. I wonder if you've ever 118 00:09:43.789 --> 00:09:50.309 had a conversation, or perhaps a moment like this, or maybe even years 119 00:09:50.470 --> 00:09:54.340 like this, with God. Many of us who come to trust Christ later 120 00:09:54.460 --> 00:10:00.779 in life, I think, can particularly resonate with this woman's experience, but 121 00:10:00.940 --> 00:10:05.299 all of us can in different ways. A lot of us go through life 122 00:10:05.299 --> 00:10:11.450 believing in God or a God or a higher power of some kind, believing 123 00:10:11.490 --> 00:10:16.289 that he's mostly good, that he's mostly powerful, which means that he probably 124 00:10:16.370 --> 00:10:22.279 has the ability to make our lives easier, and it sure would be nice 125 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:26.080 if he did. If I didn't have to come out to this well every 126 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:30.320 day or every few days, if I didn't have to do the dishes and 127 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:35.159 the law and laundry over and over again, or work with this dumb boss 128 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:39.149 or have to deal with this relationship in my family. Of God would just 129 00:10:39.350 --> 00:10:43.590 fix this, it would be sure Nice. And then we come into contact, 130 00:10:45.070 --> 00:10:50.460 we come into contact with some sort of sense of the divine not that 131 00:10:50.659 --> 00:10:52.860 God is sort of in and out of the world, it's just that our 132 00:10:52.940 --> 00:10:56.820 eyes are more or less open at different times. But we get a sense 133 00:10:56.860 --> 00:11:01.179 of his presence in our lives and we say, oh well, maybe I 134 00:11:01.259 --> 00:11:05.129 can ask him for this, give you this water, but I don't have 135 00:11:05.210 --> 00:11:09.649 to come out to the well anymore. Of course, most of the time 136 00:11:09.690 --> 00:11:13.610 people don't trust God, they don't really ask him for help, they don't 137 00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:16.889 really seek things from him, they just kind of complain and are mad at 138 00:11:16.889 --> 00:11:24.879 him in the back of their minds. But then when this sense or realization 139 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:30.919 of his power, of his goodness comes into our lives, perhaps somebody tells 140 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:33.990 us about something that happened in their lives. Perhaps we see something or hear 141 00:11:35.190 --> 00:11:41.230 something in the word. Perhaps there's something that happens in your life. You 142 00:11:45.950 --> 00:11:52.139 bypass a car wreck or you feel like you you sort of avoided disaster in 143 00:11:52.259 --> 00:11:56.379 some way and you feel like I hear sometimes people says someone must be looking 144 00:11:56.460 --> 00:12:01.769 out for me, and in those moments we think now, maybe maybe he 145 00:12:01.970 --> 00:12:03.889 is as good as he says he is, maybe he is as powerful as 146 00:12:03.929 --> 00:12:09.769 he says he is, and so we respond with a kind of prayer that 147 00:12:11.049 --> 00:12:13.809 isn't really trusting and isn't really faithful, but just as sort of a GIMMI, 148 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:22.879 Gimmi Gimmy. A lot of people, a lot of us, think 149 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:28.840 of God like a divine vending machine. We have something we want, he 150 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:33.629 has something to give. It's a relationship made in heaven, right, this 151 00:12:33.789 --> 00:12:39.029 is going to be great. No, of course, this kind of thinking 152 00:12:39.269 --> 00:12:46.700 is is from Hell. Why? Because it's not true and it turns God 153 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:52.580 into something he's not, and it thinks of us as ourselves is something that 154 00:12:52.700 --> 00:12:58.769 we are not. We do need things, of course. A God can 155 00:12:58.009 --> 00:13:03.970 supply them, of course, but this thinking of God as a divine vending 156 00:13:05.090 --> 00:13:13.080 machine is devilish for a couple reasons, even more, but I mentioned two. 157 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:20.360 The first thing is it turns our relationship with God as it really is, 158 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:26.789 on its head. God into our servant, into our slave. In 159 00:13:26.950 --> 00:13:31.309 our minds, we strip him of His Majesty, of His Holiness, of 160 00:13:31.470 --> 00:13:39.590 his rightful ownership over us, of his kingly right to demand anything he asks. 161 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:45.259 Take a look at Psalm thirty three for a moment. I want to 162 00:13:45.299 --> 00:14:01.330 read to you some verses here in Psalm thirty three we are if you listen 163 00:14:01.409 --> 00:14:07.809 to verses thirteen, for example, and following. We read this. The 164 00:14:07.970 --> 00:14:13.320 Lord Looks Down From Heaven. He sees all the children of Man. From 165 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:18.039 where he sits in throne, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the 166 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:24.120 earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. 167 00:14:24.990 --> 00:14:28.789 The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not 168 00:14:28.909 --> 00:14:33.029 delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation 169 00:14:33.509 --> 00:14:39.179 and by its great might it cannot rescue this picture of the Lord. Or 170 00:14:39.259 --> 00:14:43.740 if you look up in verse six, by the Word of the Lord the 171 00:14:43.820 --> 00:14:46.059 Heavens were made and by his breath, of his mouth and all their hosts, 172 00:14:46.379 --> 00:14:50.500 he who gathers the waters of the sea as a heap and puts the 173 00:14:50.580 --> 00:14:54.049 heaps in the store house, says, let all the earth fear of the 174 00:14:54.129 --> 00:14:58.129 Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 175 00:14:58.370 --> 00:15:05.970 You don't stand an awe of vending machine, you bang on it, give 176 00:15:07.009 --> 00:15:13.720 me my chips right. But with God, he is not our slave, 177 00:15:13.799 --> 00:15:20.360 he is not our servant. We are to stand in awe before him as 178 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:22.590 the one who, by the breath of his mouth, made us, who 179 00:15:22.629 --> 00:15:28.710 sits in his heaven enthroned, and knows and observes all of us and all 180 00:15:30.029 --> 00:15:35.629 our deeds. You are right to say you have no husband, for you 181 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:39.700 have had five and the one you are now with is not your husband. 182 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:46.259 He knows it all. There's nothing that we can hide from him. We 183 00:15:46.340 --> 00:15:50.409 wouldn't even ask our dog to bring us our slippers and then ignore it for 184 00:15:50.450 --> 00:15:54.370 the rest of the day, and yet people do this all the time with 185 00:15:54.529 --> 00:16:00.769 God. There's this kind of unholy reversal. It's it's like turning the world 186 00:16:00.769 --> 00:16:07.039 upside down, making heaven on earth and Earth and heaven, exalting ourselves to 187 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:14.799 the place of God and seeing God as our our servant, as our bloy 188 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:19.950 that runs errands for us, or something like that. That's a big problem. 189 00:16:22.149 --> 00:16:26.110 The second problem is that not only does this kind of thinking do this 190 00:16:26.590 --> 00:16:33.500 unholy reversal with our relationship with God, it also denies a break in the 191 00:16:33.620 --> 00:16:42.419 relationship that actually exists. It denies that all mankind has this break that all 192 00:16:42.500 --> 00:16:48.529 man has kind has had with God ever since we sinned with sinned against him 193 00:16:48.529 --> 00:16:52.250 in the garden of Eden. From that moment on, what was once a 194 00:16:52.409 --> 00:16:59.690 close, intimate relationship, with US ruling under him as his vice regions or 195 00:16:59.809 --> 00:17:07.240 little kings and Queens. When sin came into the world, it became confrontation, 196 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:14.000 a war in sin. We hid our sins. Adam and Eve, 197 00:17:14.079 --> 00:17:17.190 what did they do? They tried to cover themselves up, they tried to 198 00:17:17.470 --> 00:17:22.910 hide from God. Instead of speaking openly with God, they began a long, 199 00:17:22.950 --> 00:17:29.750 long history of evasion, of manipulation, of trying to get things from 200 00:17:29.789 --> 00:17:36.259 him while not really serving him or loving him or being with him as he 201 00:17:36.299 --> 00:17:40.740 has called us to be. God says to them, have you eaten of 202 00:17:40.819 --> 00:17:44.730 the tree which I commanded you to eat? He says to Adam, the 203 00:17:44.890 --> 00:17:48.809 woman that you gave me, she gave the fruit of the tree and I 204 00:17:48.849 --> 00:17:55.970 ate it. Evasion Right. Where is your brother Abel? God says to 205 00:17:56.089 --> 00:18:02.000 Kane. I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? Hiding sins, 206 00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:07.720 evasion, confrontation. Go Call Your husband, God says. I have no 207 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:18.390 husband. Evasion, hiding but of course Adam did eat of it, Kane 208 00:18:18.470 --> 00:18:22.750 did kill and this woman has had five husbands and is living with a man 209 00:18:22.950 --> 00:18:29.859 who does not belong to her. Jesus points this out, she responds by 210 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:34.539 avoiding the issue with a theology question. So you see what I mean. 211 00:18:36.579 --> 00:18:41.490 You see what we do. Sin Takes a good, intimate, rightly ordered, 212 00:18:41.529 --> 00:18:45.410 a relationship with God that is full of blessing and joy and it turns 213 00:18:45.450 --> 00:18:51.609 it into conflict instead of peace. It turns it into war, and that's 214 00:18:51.730 --> 00:18:57.640 why we treat him worse than we treat our dogs. In Our sin and 215 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:03.680 stupidity, we want God to leave us alone, but we also want him 216 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:07.720 to give us what we want, if we can manage to get it from 217 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:15.109 him. That's the reason for the confrontation on our side. What's the reason 218 00:19:15.230 --> 00:19:19.470 for the confrontation on God's side? Well, that one is a blessed one. 219 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:26.220 That one is a gracious one. God says the uncomfortable things, he 220 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:32.019 asks the hard questions, he puts on the pressure because he's saving us. 221 00:19:33.019 --> 00:19:40.250 Like a doctor who asks you the hard questions, who gives you difficult tests, 222 00:19:41.049 --> 00:19:45.529 God could have scored simply ignore us, observe our deeds, and say 223 00:19:45.569 --> 00:19:48.730 I want nothing to do with them, and he would be perfectly just in 224 00:19:48.890 --> 00:19:55.920 doing that. He's holy. We're not. He is righteous and everything he 225 00:19:56.039 --> 00:20:00.880 does good in every way. We are not. But what does he do 226 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:10.829 instead? Our God and savior blesses us with the hard questions, with the 227 00:20:10.869 --> 00:20:15.869 uncomfortable situations, which exposes, which expose the problem in our hearts, and 228 00:20:17.109 --> 00:20:22.940 also begins to change them. Why did you hide from me? Where is 229 00:20:22.059 --> 00:20:30.460 your brother? Go Call Your husband. We're afraid of the Hornets Nest of 230 00:20:30.660 --> 00:20:34.500 sin that is in our hearts, so we ignore it because we're scared, 231 00:20:36.289 --> 00:20:40.369 we're embarrassed, we're ashamed. And then God pokes at it with his question 232 00:20:40.529 --> 00:20:45.890 stick, not to hurt us, but so that we can't ignore the problem 233 00:20:45.930 --> 00:20:52.079 anymore. The problem of our unholy is the problem of our broken relationship with 234 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:57.440 him, and that's why Jesus doesn't ignore her evasive theology question, but he 235 00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:03.470 does turn it on its head and he implicitly calls her to become a true 236 00:21:03.509 --> 00:21:11.869 worshiper of God, not by adopting or affirming this Jewish identity or a Samaritan 237 00:21:11.950 --> 00:21:17.869 identity, but by coming to God in Christ, by receiving the Gift of 238 00:21:18.109 --> 00:21:23.059 God that is standing right in front of her. Jesus is teaching her, 239 00:21:23.940 --> 00:21:27.500 as he is teaching us, that the only way to the father, the 240 00:21:29.660 --> 00:21:33.410 only way for true worship, for true intimacy, is through the sun. 241 00:21:33.529 --> 00:21:38.690 It's through him, through the spirit and the truth that he brings. It's 242 00:21:38.730 --> 00:21:45.450 not by becoming more of ourselves or more Jewish or more Samaritan or more American 243 00:21:45.490 --> 00:21:51.000 or whatever, it's by believing in him. The only way to believe in 244 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:59.720 him is are to believe in God, is through Jesus. Yeah, yeah, 245 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:02.509 yeah, she says, I know that when the Messiah comes, he'll 246 00:22:02.549 --> 00:22:07.029 tell us all these things. I who speak to you, am he Jesus 247 00:22:07.109 --> 00:22:14.910 says. Now it might be tempting to ridicule this woman, when you hear 248 00:22:15.029 --> 00:22:23.259 of her excessive marriages, to dismiss her as immoral and foolish. It might 249 00:22:23.299 --> 00:22:26.579 be tempting to be proud. I've only had four husbands, you might say, 250 00:22:30.170 --> 00:22:38.009 but listen, the specific immorality of any particular person, though it might 251 00:22:38.089 --> 00:22:44.920 be a little different from yours, is connected to the same root of sinfulness 252 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.559 that is in all of us. The Bible says that no one is without 253 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:57.990 judgment, none of us have an excuse. We all fall short of the 254 00:22:59.069 --> 00:23:03.269 glory of God. We come from the same stock, the same root. 255 00:23:03.990 --> 00:23:07.910 All of us have this Hornet's nest of sin that God could poke at with 256 00:23:07.069 --> 00:23:12.779 his question stick. And this is true of sexual sin as much as anything 257 00:23:12.859 --> 00:23:17.779 else. Jesus says in Matthew Five hundred and twenty eight. I say to 258 00:23:17.859 --> 00:23:22.500 you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery 259 00:23:22.579 --> 00:23:27.369 with her in his heart. This is true of anyone who looks at anyone 260 00:23:29.049 --> 00:23:33.890 in this way. We're all guiltrey of these things. We're a room full 261 00:23:33.930 --> 00:23:40.609 of adulterers. But here's the Gift of God standing in front of us. 262 00:23:40.650 --> 00:23:47.200 Jesus gives himself to us. And what is the Gift of God? Forgiveness, 263 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:55.559 peace, eternal life, intimacy with God, true worship. Remember Psalm 264 00:23:55.710 --> 00:24:00.950 Fifty one that we sung earlier. David, the ADULTER, the murderer, 265 00:24:00.990 --> 00:24:06.789 going before the Lord and saying, create in me a clean heart, renew 266 00:24:06.869 --> 00:24:12.500 a right spirit within me, cleanse me, make me holy, restore to 267 00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:19.339 me the joy of my salvation. Why is that possible? Why Can David 268 00:24:19.460 --> 00:24:25.569 Ask for those things as someone who is just as unworthy and unholy is this 269 00:24:25.769 --> 00:24:30.730 woman, or is you or me? It's because he believed in the Gift 270 00:24:30.809 --> 00:24:34.849 of God, the promises that God had made, promises that we also read 271 00:24:34.970 --> 00:24:41.319 earlier when we read Ephesians five. The Christ loved the Church. He took 272 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:48.039 an adulterous woman and made her his bride. That's that's some deep love. 273 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:56.750 Why? That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her and washed her with 274 00:24:56.829 --> 00:25:00.549 the water in the word, so that he might present the church to himself 275 00:25:00.589 --> 00:25:04.150 and splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might 276 00:25:04.190 --> 00:25:11.059 be holy and without blemish. So, when you hear about the woman at 277 00:25:11.099 --> 00:25:15.500 the well, the last thing you want to do is stand away from her, 278 00:25:15.220 --> 00:25:23.009 stand apart from her, stand over her in judgment. No, instead, 279 00:25:23.049 --> 00:25:33.130 you want to join this confrontational conversation. Why? So that your sins 280 00:25:33.210 --> 00:25:38.720 can be exposed to so that the great physician and healer can identify the wounds 281 00:25:38.839 --> 00:25:45.440 that are in your heart and bring about restoration. If you stand away from 282 00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:48.880 her, if you put yourself in a different category than you miss the gift, 283 00:25:51.309 --> 00:25:55.150 the one that's standing in front of her, the teaching, the water, 284 00:25:55.390 --> 00:26:03.869 the eternal life. Our husband Jesus. The Jesus that spoke to her 285 00:26:03.029 --> 00:26:07.299 then, is also that Jesus who would go to the cross to be stung 286 00:26:07.579 --> 00:26:14.299 by the sins that are in our hearts, to suffer the consequences for us 287 00:26:15.740 --> 00:26:18.180 so that we might be washed, that we might be cleansed, so that 288 00:26:18.259 --> 00:26:23.450 we wouldn't have to suffer the penalties that he faced for us, so that 289 00:26:23.529 --> 00:26:29.329 we could have his life instead of our death. The Jesus who went to 290 00:26:29.410 --> 00:26:33.839 the cross is the same Jesus who speaks to you today now through the Holy 291 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:40.119 Spirit, as you've heard in his word. Don't treat God as your slave. 292 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:45.160 Hold fast to him as your savior. Let's pray