20

John 4:16-30 THE SAMARITAN WOMAN BELIEVING IN JESUS

Introduction:

In our previous text Jesus told the Samaritan woman

that if she knew the gift of God and if she knew who it is

who talked with her, she would ask of Him and He would give

her living water which would spring up within her unto

everlasting life.

She asked. She did not understand the gift of God.

She did not understand that Jesus was offering her the

salvation of her soul. Neither did she understand who it is

that she was talking to.

But she did ask. She asked Jesus to give her that

living water. Therefore, Jesus set about to increase her

understanding of what He was offering to her and of who He

is. He wanted her to understand that He is the Messiah, the

Christ of God.

I. Jesus pointing out the sinfulness of the woman

V. 16, "Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband, and

come hither." It would seem to the woman that this is quite

a natural request on the part of Jesus. He would assume

that she is married and would want to offer living water to

her husband also. Furthermore, it was in keeping with the

customs of the day to present even the gift to the woman

through her husband.

But actually, what Jesus was doing was to bring this

woman to a consciousness of her guilt of sin and her need of

salvation. People will not realize their need of

forgiveness of sin until they realize that they are guilty

of sin. There must have been many sins in the life of this

woman, but Jesus was calling to her attention the most

obvious sin in her life. This was the sin which she would

most easily recognize and acknowledge.

V. 17-18, "The woman answered and said, I have no

husband. Jesus saith unto her, Thou hast well said, I have

no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom

thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou

truly." Jesus, of course, already knew that she had no

husband. He already knew that she had five husbands. He

already knew that she was not married to the man that she

was now living with. She had just shacked up with this man.

This statement of our Lord implies that there may have

been a lot of sin involved in the earlier part of her life

which had led to her having five husbands. In any marriage

problem it is to be assumed that there may be fault on both

sides. Yet often, the greater fault lies with only one of

the two parties. The fact that she had had five husbands

implies that this woman was the one chiefly at fault. She

may have been a promiscuous woman, running with other men

even during the time she was married. At least something

was wrong in her conduct.

Her sinfulness had, in all probability, been somewhat

on her conscience. Jesus called it all back sharply to her

memory with that one statement. He said, "You have had five

husbands and the man that you are living with now is not

your husband." This brought all of those feelings of guilt

flooding back into her mind. She had lived a sinful life

and she knew it.

II. The woman's acceptance of Jesus as a prophet

V. 19, "The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that

thou art a prophet." Well, that is a step in the right

direction. When Jesus first spoke to her, He was to her

just another Jew. But now, she recognizes that He has some

special connection with God. She thinks, "He has got to be

a prophet of God. How could He know about my five husbands

unless He is a prophet of God? How could He know that I am

shacked up with a man unless He is a prophet of God? That

is it! He has got to be a prophet of God!" As I said, that

is a step in the right direction. It does not yet go far

enough, but at least she is getting closer to the fact that

Jesus is the Christ of God.

Then the woman started trying to dodge the issue. The

issue was her sins and her need of getting right with God,

the need of being saved. But she brought up the difference

in His religion as a Jew and her religion as a Samaritan.

Have you ever noticed that when someone begins to get under

conviction of their sin and their need of salvation, that

they will bring up some religious question that draws

attention completely away form the issue at hand.

III. The woman's attempt to dodge the issue of her guilt

V. 20, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain..." She

was talking about Mt. Gerizim. This is believed to be the

mountain where Abraham had built an altar for the purpose of

sacrificing Isaac to God. It is also the mountain from

which Moses had pronounced the blessings of God upon Israel

if they would be faithful to God.

However, when she said, "Our father worshipped in this

mountain, she was not talking about Abraham and Moses.

Rather, she was talking about the Samaritan fathers. She

was talking about this half-breed nation which was part Jew

and part Gentile. The Samaritans had built a temple in Mt.

Gerizim and this was the center of Samaritan worship.

(V. 20), "...and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place

where men ought to worship." She had now recognized Jesus

as a prophet of God, but she was still recognizing Jesus

chiefly as a Jew. She was saying, "We Samaritans believe

that the place where men ought to worship God is Mt.

Gerizim, but you Jews believe that Jerusalem is the place

where men ought to worship God."

Do you see what she was doing? She was dodging the

issue. The issue was that she was a sinner in the sight of

God and she needs to be saved from her sins. But what does

she want to do? She wants to discuss with this prophet of

God whether or not men should worship in Mt. Gerizim or in

Jerusalem.

I remember talking to people about being saved and what

did they want to talk about? They would say, "Now you

Baptists believe so-and-so, but our people believe

thus-and-thus." They were trying to dodge the issue. The

issue was that they were lost in sin and in desperate need

of salvation, but they want to nit-pick about some doctrinal

issue.

I acknowledge that doctrines are important. They are

important to God and they ought to be important to us

Christians. But the chief issue for any unsaved person is

his need of being saved. The most important thing in the

world for the unsaved is the salvation of the soul.

IV. How Jesus dealt with the side issue which she raised

Never-the-less, since the woman brought up the issue of

where men ought to worship, Jesus had to deal with it in

order to lead this woman to salvation. V. 21, "Jesus saith

unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall

neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the

Father."

Jesus pointed out that the time would come when the

Samaritans would not be worshipping in Mt. Gerizim and

neither would the Jews be worshipping in Jerusalem.

Actually, that time would come right soon. In 70 A. D.,

after the Jews had rebelled against Rome, the Roman army

would come against this whole part of the country and

over-run it. They would capture even the city of Jerusalem

and destroy it. The temples at both Mt. Gerizim and at

Jerusalem would be destroyed and, therefore, the public

worship services at both places would be shut down.

V. 22, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we

worship: for salvation is of the Jews." Jesus took up the

issue which she had raised in which she had implied that she

rejected the religion of the Jews in preference for the

religion of the Samaritans. Jesus strongly defended the

religion of the Jews. It was not that He agreed with the

Jewish leaders in their interpretation of the laws of God.

He did not agree with them and would strongly debate the

issues with them. But the Jewish religion had at the

beginning come from God. And in spite of the man made

doctrines and traditions which had been added by the Jewish

leaders, the basic tenets of the Jewish religion remained

the same. The truth was still there.

Jesus said that salvation is of the Jews. The way of

salvation was still set forth by the teachings of the law

and in the writings of the prophets. The promised Messiah,

the Savior, would not come through the Samaritans, but would

come through the Jews. He was to be born in the tribe of

Judah and in the family of David. Salvation was, indeed, of

the Jews. The Savior, Himself, was of the Jews.

V. The true worship that God really wants out of men

V. 23, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true

worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:

for the Father seeketh such to worship him." What Jesus is

doing is to point out to her what really counts with God.

It is not going to Mt. Gerizim to worship that counts with

God. Neither is going to Jerusalem. What counts with God

is getting right with God in the inward spirit. True

worship of God comes from the inward spirit. It comes for

the heart. It does not come from Gerizim nor Jerusalem. It

does not come from holding membership in any particular

church denomination. Nobody is going to get into heaven

because he is a Baptist nor will he get in because he is in

any other denomination.

Jesus had told Nicodemus that he must be born again in

order to enter the kingdom of God. When one is born again,

his inward spirit is changed and he becomes a true worshiper

of God in the inward spirit. Furthermore, Jesus had told

Nicodemus that the way to be born again is to look by faith

to the Christ who would be crucified and lifted up on a

pole. He told Nicodemus that God so loved the world that He

gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him

would not perish but have everlasting life. He told

Nicodemus that whoever believeth on the Christ is not

condemned, but that whoever does not believe on the Christ

is condemned already.

God wants people to be genuinely saved. He is not

interested in people just joining a certain denomination

thinking that will get them into heaven. It won't. God the

Father is seeking for men, women, boys and girls to be

genuinely born again ---- genuinely saved. God wants true

worship.

Of course, after one is saved, God the Father is

interested in every saved person learning the doctrinal

truths of God and worshipping Him in truth. The Father is

also seeking that. V. 24, "God is a Spirit: and they that

worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

VI. The woman's awareness of the coming Christ

V. 25, "The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias

cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will

tell us all things." The woman now turns, not to some

disagreement between the religion of the Samaritans and the

Jews, but to a point of agreement. She acknowledges that

she believes in the coming of the Messiah, the Christ --

just as the Jews also believe.

The Samaritans accepted the first five books of the

Bible, which is called "The Pentateuch." They believed in

those books which were written by Moses. They rejected all

the rest of the Old Testament. However, since Moses,

himself, had predicted that a special prophet would come

who would be like Moses, the Samaritans believed that this

is true. The woman is saying that she believes that this

special prophet, who will be like Moses, will be the same

prophet which Jews call "The Messiah" or "The Christ."

She apparently believed what the Samaritans had taught

about the coming of the Messiah. The Samaritans taught that

since He would be like Moses, He would be a great teacher.

This, of course, was true as far as it went. It failed,

however, to recognize Him as the Savior.

She knew that the Christ was coming and expected Him to

come soon. When the Christ, the great teacher like Moses,

would come she would be ready to listen to Him and to

believe Him in all things. She said, "...when he is come,

he will tell us all things."

VII. Jesus proclaims that He is the Christ

V. 26, "Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am

he." Those words must have fell on that woman like a

thunderbolt. "...I that speak unto thee, am he." "I am the

Messiah. I am the Christ. I am the One who is able to tell

you all things. I am the One who is able to tell you about

the salvation of the soul. I am the One who is able to give

you a spiritual water, a living water, that will spring up

within you unto eternal life."

V. 27, "And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled

that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest

thou." The disciples arrived on the scene and very quietly

took their places with Jesus. They were surprised that He

was talking to this Samaritan woman, but they did not dare

to question Him or her about it. They just quietly came in

trying not to interrupt.

VIII. The woman's acceptance of Jesus as the Christ

However, the conversation between Jesus and the woman

was over. The woman left. V. 28-30. "The woman then left

her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to

the men, Come, see a man, who told me all things that ever I

did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the

city, and came unto him."

She had heard enough. She reached the point that she

believed that He is the Christ. She had reached the point

that she was ready to believe all things whatsoever He would

say. She had reached the point that she trusted in His

promise to give her living water which would spring up into

everlasting life. She had reached the point that she

trusted in Him to cleans her from her sin and do whatever

else is necessary to get her into heaven.

She was so excited that she left her waterpot behind

and went into the city telling people about Jesus. She

said, "...is not this the Christ?..." She had come to the

well to get water. She went away without the water that she

had come after. But she carried with her a spiritual water

which was far more precious to her than literal water. She

had found the Living Water which springs up into everlasting

life. She had found the Christ as her Savior. She had

found the salvation of her soul.

Conclusion:

Will you take Jesus as your Savior today? Will you

place your faith in Him and trust in His promises? Will you

trust Him to give you that living water that springs up into

everlasting life? Will you come forward and profess Him

openly before men? If so, come now!