SERMON – The Woman At The Well

This sermon is based on John 4:5-15.

Jesus was in transit from Judea to Galilee, but He had to pass through Samaria to get there.

He wasn’t going to Samaria to do any ministry there.  He was just passing through.  In fact, Samaria was not really included in His ministry programme.

We get a clue to this when He met up with the Syrophoenician woman who had a sick daughter.  She begged Him to heal the girl, but Jesus told her that He had come to minister to the lost sheep of Israel, and that people outside of Israel were not on the invitation list.  It was her persistence and faith that got her daughter healed in the end.

So Jesus was not expecting to minister to anyone in Samaria.  It was just a convenient route to get Him back to Galilee.

He had walked all day, because it was quite a way from Judea to Galilee.

He had left Judea because He heard that the Pharisees were starting to get wind of His influence.  They had just got over John the Baptist, and now here was this other fellow having a greater influence than John.  Jesus left the area because it was not yet time to tangle with the religious leaders.

Here is a point:  There is a time and a place for everything.  Jesus chose His times and places very carefully.  Remember what He said to His mother when they ran out of wine at the wedding in Cana.  He told her that His time was not yet come.  Mary’s faith overcame that.  Even though His own preference was not to perform a miracle, His love and respect for His mother overruled His own timetabling.  We are going to see something similar happening here.

So Jesus arrives at Jacob’s well.  It is 6:00pm and He is tired and weary, so He sits down and rests while the disciples have gone into town to visit the local Subway to get them all some food.

Here comes a woman to draw water.  This is a predictable event.  This was the town’s water supply.  They didn’t have kitchen taps there.   People brought containers from their homes and collected the water from the well for drinking and washing.  Therefore, this woman was going about her daily household chores.

Here, we are about to have an event which is going to change this woman’s life forever, and lay the foundation for a major revival in Samaria under the ministry of Phillip the Evangelist years later.

Now, Jesus does something that was not considered the done thing in that society: a Jewish man speaking with a Samaritan woman.  He asks her for a drink.  He could have asked any number of men who are around, but He deliberately asks her because He can see something in her heart that has potential for the future working of the plans and purposes of God.

We are so often held in bondage to tradition.  “This is the way we have always done it, and we do not intend to change.”  We are reluctant to step out of our comfort zones.  When Jesus saw a ministry opportunity, He did not have this problem.  Even as a twelve year old, He had this habit.  There was that day when His parents had lost Him in Jerusalem and then found Him talking with the priests in the temple.  He felt that His Father’s business was more important than allowing his parents to know where He was.

The Samaritan woman questions His action.  She knows full well that what Jesus is doing is not the done thing.  But notice that she does not reject Him.  She could have backed away, which would have been the right thing to do.

Then Jesus says something unusual (verse 10).  He is now speaking prophetically.  Many times He has spoken to people in parables, but here He sees that this woman has a soft heart toward God.  He sees below the surface of what looks like an ordinary woman who has come to draw water.  He sees her as the key person to unlock Samaria for the gospel later on.

So He says a number of things:

“If you knew the gift of God” – this is talking about the salvation that God has given to those who wish to receive it.

“And who it is that says to you…”  The knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God comes by revelation.  That’s what He told Peter: “Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”

If she had know these things (that come through revelation), she would have asked for living water.  Jesus is talking about something more than just the water from the well.

Verse 11:  She doesn’t get the message, because she is still thinking as an ordinary person is thinking.  She is still thinking terms of the physical well and the person who first provided it.

There are times when the Lord would want us to think beyond the natural.  We can only do that when the Holy Spirit gives us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.  Christianity involves more than just our natural senses and the natural world.  The Holy Spirit communicates the secrets and mysteries of God to our spirits, if we open ourselves to Him.

If we stay rooted in our natural thinking and the information that comes from the physical world, we will never discover the central ‘meat’ of Christianity.  We will always be dabbling around in the milk.  It’s like drinking the milk that comes with our porridge, but never getting around to eating the porridge itself.

Verse 13:  Jesus says that the people who drink of the physical water will get thirsty again.  And it is the same with those who limit themselves to the things of this physical world.  They will always be hungry and thirsty for God, but will never be quite satisfied.

Verse 14:  Jesus describes the living water:  (a)  He gives it; (b) The water creates eternal life within us.

Verse 15:  The woman then starts to realize that Jesus is somehow different to anyone she has ever met before.  She has a God sized gap in her life.  She knows that she needs this living water.  She is bold enough to ask Jesus to give it to her.

Now here is an important point to consider:   If we want anything from God, we need to ask for it.  We do that through prayer.  If we never pray, then we will never receive the best that God has to give us.  The Father said to Jesus, “Ask of Me and I will give you the nations for an inheritance.”   Therefore, if the Father expects His Son to ask Him for the things He needs, then we are expected to receive from God through asking.  James says, “You have not because you ask not.”   This is the great problem with many churches and religious people who do not enter into group and personal prayer.  They do not receive from God, because He is waiting for them to start praying and asking Him to supply their needs.   A prayerless person is a spiritually barren person.  A prayerless church is a spiritually barren church.

But the woman doesn’t quite get the message even then, because she things that if she has this living water, she might not have to come and do the chore of drawing water any more.

Jesus then reveals to her that He knows that she has had several husbands, and that the man she is presently living with is not her husband.  When He says that, she perceives that Jesus is a prophet.  Her heart is opened up to more of His words to her.

She finally goes away (verse 29) and tells the men of the city to come and see a man who has told her all the things she has done.  Hey, this might be the Messiah!

Jesus stayed for two more days and ministered to the men of that Samaritan city.  This has laid the foundation for later on when Phillip the Evangelist visited that city to preach the gospel there.   He found the people there very open to his message, and there was a major revival and thousands came to know the Lord.

This all happened because of one woman who opened her heart to Jesus and listened to what He said to her, and believed in Him enough to get others to listen also.

Mighty and wonderful things can happen through just one person’s obedience to the promptings of the Spirit.  Because God is no respecter of persons, the person who obeys could be anyone of any age or status.  In fact, it could be you.  Your obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit could completely change the world around you.

Paul Christensen, 19 March 2006.