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John 4:4-26
Our reading today is from John's Gospel, chapter four, beginning at verse four.
Now, he had to go through Samaria. He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? As disciples had gone into town to buy food, the Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?
Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.
He told her, go, call your husband and come back.
I have no husband, she replied.
Jesus said to her, you are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you have had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.
Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.
Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time 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, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and now come when the true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the father seeks. God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in the spirit and the truth.
The woman said, I know the Messiah called Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.
Then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, I am he.
Hear the word of the Lord.
Jesus Meets Us at Our Lowest
That's amazing really, isn't it? Jesus declares his Messiahship, his being the Christ to a woman at a well. She's the first, it's the only time in John's gospel he says those words. Just amazing. How about we pray?
Our father, we're so grateful to be here. Thank you for watching over us and bringing us safely to this place.
Lord, we're aware that some are absent and we uphold them before you as we have already. Thank you for those who were able to join us online or perhaps afterwards.
Lord, this is your word. It's your son. He's come to a woman at a well. We get to eavesdrop and in the story find ourselves.
So would you open our hearts today? Would you open our lives to your purposes? That as we sit with you and watch, that we would be transformed for Christ's sake. Amen.
Jesus is good news. Jesus is good news for everybody. Jesus is good news all the time and we think particularly about the unloved or the ostracized today.
And this woman, this marvellous story, I don't know if you got to see the clip that was in the weekly that takes you to an episode of The Chosen. It's really worth a watch. I cry every time. Every time. Just amazing.
So great to spend time in this part of John's Gospel.
If you've got a Bible with you, it's good to open it. Obviously, we didn't have the whole chapter read. The story goes on. It just kind of gets better and the bits either side, the end of chapter three and the start of chapter five, they're relevant as well.
So the whole picture was not given this morning, not by any means. You will know that the one who does the work gets the most benefit. So I've learned heaps preparing for today and my hope is that something that I say might stimulate you to go and do some work.
Okay, it's kind of not over when I shut up and sit down. This is like an invitation to go somewhere with Jesus. So come.
When You've Run Out of Options
The thing I love about this encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is the way that she has totally run out of options. Okay, she's on her fifth husband and you can bet that made her a scandal in the village where she lived.
That's why she's coming to the well in the middle of the day. Nobody goes to the well in the middle of the day. It's hot. But she didn't want to be seen. She didn't want to encounter the other women of the town.
And so this woman who's totally run out of options is met by Jesus and he sees something in her she cannot see and draws it out. How's that? Just like when he looks at you, he sees something you cannot see and his desire is to draw it out for his glory and for your good.
Now Jesus is very busy as he sits by the well waiting for this woman to come and draw water.
Do you know what it's like to come to the end of yourself? Do you know what that's like?
It might be your health. It might be a relationship. It might be your work. It could be just ideas. It could be energy. It could be faith and just to kind of come to the end.
I hope so. I hope so because certainly in my experience that's where the learning begins.
You've got all these tricks up your sleeve. There's lots of them. I've got two sleeves and you're pretty confident in all your tricks and away you go and that doesn't work.
What now? Maybe lean on a friend. Perhaps do some research. Watch a couple of YouTube videos. Get some new ideas.
Good luck with that and eventually you kind of oh but it's just me and there's nothing left.
Perhaps you've been exhausted. Certainly you know running or exercising you know what that's like. Raising children.
Maybe you've been spiritually exhausted. Kind of run out of hope. Maybe you've been broken or disappointed. Perhaps angry or lost.
Maybe trapped or burdened. Carrying regrets. Maybe the what might have been's are heavy for you.
Oh here's the Samaritan woman. Okay so join the club. Okay because it's all happened to her and she's pretty low.
And just remember okay this is not Deep Creek in 2026. This is Palestine in the year sort of 30 something.
Okay so men and women lived segregated lives and even now if you go to the subcontinent or you know I've been to Pakistan. The men sit on that side of the church and the women sit on that side and you go to a synagogue and if they've got two stories the women are upstairs and sometimes behind a curtain. Men are downstairs.
So please notice how inappropriate this encounter is. Jesus is alone with a woman.
Please notice that Jews and Samaritans didn't like one another. Read your Old Testament. The Babylonians came and deported the top 10 tribes and they just replaced them with people from somewhere else. That's how they ran their kingdom.
When they took you over you got sort of exiled. Okay and they put other people in otherwise you know the land would go to weeds and stuff. Right so they needed somebody to grow their crops and so on for them. They were the rulers after all.
So these people from all over the place came in and they were the top that they lived in that that's a Samaria area. That different place of worship. I think they even had a golden calf. All right so that's not working for the Jews. So they didn't want anything to do with them.
This woman is a Samaritan. You remember the parable the good Samaritan. Yeah okay it's like the good Palestinian. That's not gonna fly.
Okay so here's Jesus alone with a woman. That's bad. And she's a Samaritan. And she's not just a Samaritan. She's a woman of ill repute and Jesus is a respected rabbi. So there goes his reputation.
Okay can you get that? She's defensive. I mean why wouldn't she be? She's on the lookout. She's a hedgehog. She's ready to attack. Because she's used to being taken advantage of.
She's of no value and if anybody wants anything you know wants to see her it's because they want something. Get something out of her. Perhaps trade on her disgrace or something like that. So look out Jesus.
But Jesus hasn't come to take something away from her. Okay so that's the thing so when you when you're busted up and you're kind of feeling like you've hit bottom you're defensive like she was.
And Jesus comes and you think man how could this thing get worse? Right now Jesus is here. But no no he's come to give. He's got a gift to give away.
Sometimes our needs are obvious like we're looking for help or we're looking for a solution. And if you look just before our reading and just after our reading you'll see people in just that situation. But that's usually just the surface stuff.
Jesus Offers More Than Solutions
Stuff, like I need a job, or I need someone to love me, or I need some sleep. Our needs are what we need to get to the end of the day or the end of the week, or to live a happy life or something like that, but it tends to be pretty easily fixed.
Our solutions are always super obvious, but that's not what's going on here. It's not like the woman has ... She's got social issues, and she's got marriage issues, and there's a couple of racial issues thrown in there, and perhaps she could do with her nails done or something.
You know what I mean? That won't help her. Here's a million dollars, and a good job, and a nice place to live, go and have a great life. It's not going to help you.
You have the biggest superannuation on the planet. It's not going to help you have a happy life. It's not going to help you get closer to Jesus. It's not going to touch you at all. It's just stuff.
This woman doesn't need stuff. She's broken.
So Jesus doesn't just come to make your life better, you know, Lord help me with my problem. Jesus comes to give you a new one.
Because if you're broken, that's because you're broken, actually. It's just finally risen to the surface.
No, no, no, Jesus doesn't come just to improve your life. He comes to give you a new one.
And it's all the language you have in the scriptures, you know, more than you could ever hope for or imagine, because we're so busy thinking about I need a new car, but no, how about a new world? How about a new life?
It's pretty simple to get people to agree to prayer for their problem. That's a great evangelistic tool, if you want to think about it as a tool, usually it should come from the heart.
Somebody starts telling you this story and go, man, let me pray for you. And don't do it when you go home, do it then. It's pretty easy to get people to say yes to prayer for their problem.
It's much harder to get them to ask for prayer for their salvation, right? Because it's about them. And that's when things get prickly and there's stuff we can't see.
Sometimes the very best friend you can be is to tell somebody, look, you know, about that thing. Does anyone talk to you about that? I've got a few things I'd like to say, are you up for it? Okay, it's called the truth.
But Jesus has come to give us a new life. Jesus has come to offer us salvation. Jesus has come not just to kind of break the mold, but to throw the thing away.
He's got a new heaven and a new earth lined up for you and you get a new body. You're not going to need the old one. And so as you go through John's gospel, you get this seesaw, you get signs of the kingdom.
Somebody gets raised from the dead, and then you get Jesus sitting down with Nicodemus. Let me tell you about this stuff, Nicodemus. And he sits down with the woman at the well. And John's recorded it here.
It's not just kind of some, you know, random extract from Jesus' diary. No, this is here for you on purpose. Because here Jesus talks about his heart, the father's heart for this new life.
He hasn't just come to change your circumstances. He's come to change who you are at the core. He's come to make you a new person. You can forget the old. You don't need that. In fact, it's probably got to die.
Jesus Enters Our Mess
Jesus' master stroke is to enter into our mess. He leaves heaven, born a baby in Bethlehem, you know the story, raised in a humble home. He knows what life is like from the inside. He knows. He knows.
You're not going to tell me in Nazareth, there weren't people like this woman at the well, who'd fallen on hard times, who were kind of, you know, the scandal. So even, you know, like you just have to be alive to meet people like that.
So Jesus knew this kind of story, and he certainly knew his own story. Hebrews tells us, he was tempted in every way as we are yet without sin. No, no. Life from the inside, friends.
When we speak to Jesus about our mess, and we can, and we should, he knows it personally, like he's experienced that, and he's actually God, and he knows your stuff already.
Sometimes you know, you're with people and you think, man, you know, you should confess that. You should confess about that. You should get that off your chest.
You know, you should hand that one over, and they go, oh, no, I couldn't. I couldn't do that before a holy God, and I'm thinking, how dumb can you be?
He knows anyway. Just tell him. It's for your good, not for his. Golly. Don't let me catch you doing that.
So he's at the well, in this totally inappropriate social context, with this woman who's a scandal, and he dumps on her. Did you hear him dump on her? Gosh, they've died, right? No, he doesn't dump on her. He doesn't judge her at all.
Another extraordinary thing to notice. He has nothing bad to say to her. It's not, you know, clean your act up and see me in the morning. No, no, no. He makes himself present and simply asks some questions.
Okay, so if you've got a Bible with you, you know, having it open now would really help you, because you could see in verse 10, he says, if you knew, if you knew, he was asking for a drink. In verse 10, he says, everyone who drinks this water will thirst again.
In verse 16, he says, go call your husband, and in verse 17, he says, you are right when you say you have no husband. He's leading with questions. He's not telling her anything at all.
And as he leads her along, kind of opens her up, her view of him changes. She comes to the well. Who does she meet? Who does she meet?
What's she supposed to think? A thirsty man, that'll do. She learns he's a Jew, like that's surprising. Jews normally go around the other way, right?
Then she figures he's a rabbi. Then you heard her say, because he knows about her marriages, oh, you're a prophet. And at the end, what does she say?
Then leaving her water jar, the reason she came to the well, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to all the people, come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ? Could this be the Christ?
And as Jesus questions her and gives her, you know, doesn't take no for an answer, keeps going, her view of him changes. And if you're watching the narrative closely, you'll see we get to about halfway, we get to verse 19 and she starts asking the questions. She starts asking the questions. And if you're in a conversation with somebody about your faith and they start asking the questions, folks, pay attention. Jesus is good news for the unloved because he loves them.
I'm wearing a badge today. I think I've been helping you with my slides at all. There's one for this. It's a God Squad badge.
When I was at Ridley, there was a guy called Chris McAleer who was handing these things out. I love it. It says, what does it say? You can read it for me. And we'll do that together. Yeah. Okay.
And what have we got on the badge? Can you see the three crosses? Yeah. Do you remember a story about one bloke on a cross? Okay then, the thief on the cross.
Today you'll be with me in paradise, okay. Jesus is good news for the unloved because he loves them. His death and resurrection include us in God's kingdom. That's the point. Even the thief on the cross.
Are You Thirsty?
I did some time in Belgrave and Upway. I was a vicar there for nine years. And we had a play group and it came up to Easter time and we told the Easter story in play group.
How are we going so far? Good? Okay then. One of the women in the play group with a kid obviously was the secretary of the humanist society and if you're the secretary of the humanist society, you're not very sympathetic to the church.
Belgrave's got its own spirituality anyway, so that was just kind of normal for up there. And she kicked up a fuss. She kicked up a fuss. How dare you read a Christian story in my play group? We pointed out to her that it was actually a church. And she stormed out.
Six months later, she came back. I've never forgotten her words. There's nothing like this out there. How's that? There's nothing like this out there. Whoa. Something's got in. Something's got in.
Later on in my time up there, we ran an evangelistic outreach in the local cinema, the Cameo Cinema in Belgrave. And I had the privilege of praying for her when she came down the front. Come on. What happened? Something, somehow, she'd been opened.
She was shut up so tight, like a tank, and stormed out of play group, how dare you? But God was at work, and her heart was opened. She was out there doing the best she could with what she had, and she came to understand that Jesus wanted to include her.
She had a glimpse of something more, and she wanted to know more about it. Otherwise, why would you come to an evangelistic event? Something's opened. Jesus has living water to share with those who are thirsty. Can you hear that today?
And the only question that is relevant this morning is this, are you thirsty? Are you thirsty? Because unless you're thirsty, it's not going to do you any good, right? It's going to just wash over you. You're going to open your mouth. You've got to let it in.
Later on, the disciples are a bit confused. They're on a long journey. Jesus is tired. He sat down by the well. He sent the disciples into town to buy some food. There's some woman there causing a fuss. Anyway, she races off.
The disciples come back with the food and say, here Jesus, we've got your lunch. Here's what Jesus says, I have food to eat you know nothing about. Then the disciples said to each other, could someone else have brought him some food? Jesus said my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Do you not say four months more and then the harvest? But I tell you, open your eyes. Look at the fields. You can imagine the woman's been into town and she's told a story and the people are coming out of the town. Look, you can see them coming. The fields are ripe for the harvest.
The father wants to include us in the kingdom of his son. Jesus has food to eat that we know nothing about. Are you hungry? Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? All this world, all this life has to offer you will ultimately leave you empty folks. It doesn't last and you can't take it with you. But Jesus satisfies.
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them and he stayed two days and because of his words, many more became believers. They said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of what you said. Now we've heard for ourselves, we know this man really is the savior of the world.
All this world has to offer you will leave you empty in the end. But Jesus satisfies.
You've heard about the God-shaped hole in your heart. We've heard that all our lives will be restless until we find our rest in him.
We've heard Jesus say, come to me all who labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and lowly of heart and you'll find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
You've heard those words. They're true. They're true actually.
That day by the well, the woman heard it, that God wanted to include her in his kingdom and it changed her life. Then leaving the water jar, the woman went back to town and said to the people, come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?
So here we go. Are you still praying that Jesus would improve your life? Good luck with that. Let me know when you run out of hope there. Because he's not in that business.
And so often we give up on God because he doesn't do what I want him to do. But that's not what he's here for. He's here to give you a new life. It's better than you could ask for or imagine. Do you see the difference?
Like I want God to do everything I can ask for and imagine that'd be great. Thanks God. But he's not doing that. He's doing something different, bigger, better, everlasting.
Easy for the woman at the well. She didn't have anything. She was toast. Like man, he could have offered her, you know, I don't know, lunch. And that would have been just massive for her.
This is completely different. We've got so much. Too much, probably. We're so comfortable. We don't need God. Really.
Jesus went a long way out of his way. I think I've got another slide here. Here's where he went. The red line that goes straight up. You can see Sycar. Can you see that? Keep on coming down. Is that where we are at the moment? Yeah, in there somewhere.
See from Judea, Jesus has got to get out of Judea. He's baptising too many people. It tells you that in John 3. People start to notice. The religious authorities start to notice. So Jesus says, we've got to get out of here. We've got to go back to Galilee. That's up the top.
Normally, a good Jew would go... Can you see how there's a kind of a woofy line? It goes over the water there, over the Jordan and into Perea. Normally, a good Jew would go across the water and up through Ragabah, up through the Decapolis and come into Galilee from the side. Because good Jews didn't want to go to Samaria.
So Jesus is breaking all the rules today. And he's gone the wrong way. He's come out of his way to meet this woman. And he sent the disciples into town to get some food. So he could sit there alone and have uninterrupted time with her. This is very focused. Please don't think this is an accident. This is very focused behaviour by Jesus.
And if you've walked with Jesus for a while, you've probably worked it out. That not much of what God does is random. So he's got you here this morning.
What do you know? What do you know? You might think, oh, it's Sunday. I'll go and see my friends or I'll go to church. The coffee's better there than it is at home. Or maybe they've turned the heaters on. No, none of those things are true.
Great. Now that's sorted. Okay, that's good for you. Let's think about it from God's point of view. Why has he brought you here this morning? Why?
Is there someone here he's got for you to talk to that needs to hear a word of encouragement? That's an option. Is it that you've been a slack dog and you need to kick in the pants from the preacher? That's an option. Is it that your whole community is going through a big time of transition and it kind of needs the numbers? That's an option.
Well, there's lots of good reasons for being here this morning. But it's best to be here if you're hungry. Actually, that's the best reason. The others are good, but they're not that good. It's best to be here if you're thirsty. Actually, you can forget the rest.
Because Jesus has got something for you. He's got something for you. And he's not going to rest until you get it. He's more persistent than you are faithless. That's my hope. He's working in you. Just like the woman at the well.
And don't tell me he hasn't gone a long way out of his way to get to you. Don't tell me that. And remember, he specializes in resurrections. That's his best thing. When all hope is lost, that's his best. Just keep reading to the end of the chapter. Chapter four has got one.
Friends, if you're physically dead for Jesus, that's no problem. If you're spiritually dead for Jesus, that's no problem. If you're emotionally dead or damaged, like the woman at the well. Friends, that's no problem.
Remember, he's come to give you something. And it's something you need that you cannot supply for yourself. That's the trick. It's called eternal life. Life, life eternal. Fullness of life. Life with him. Life with the Father. Life with the Holy Spirit. Life within you. A hope. A future. It's a gift. It only comes from one person. That's Jesus.
So, when you come to your Bible next time, and I hope it's soon. Watch Jesus closely. He's up to something. He is the Son of God. So, that makes him surprising.
And he did complete the work of his Heavenly Father. Remember, he says that here my food is to do the will of him who sent me. Okay, and that's the cross. And there's a resurrection that follows. The overflow of that completion of the Father's work is life for all who will receive him. Right?
It's just this kind of focused moment. You know, he's in the tomb, and then there's the resurrection, and there's this thing happens. And everything changes. Including us. Transformed.
He is the Christ or the Messiah. And surprisingly, this is the only place in John's Gospel where he says so. The resurrection is the proof of that. And John says as much. Read to the end of his Gospel. He says, this is why this was written. He actually tells you in words of one syllable. So that you may believe.
But resurrection comes after death. And there's a principle for the Christian life. There's a principle. Death comes first. Then the resurrection.
If you're someone sitting there today, if you're online. And you're thinking, I'm at the end. I've had enough. I'm finished. It's over. I have no more.
Can I just say, great. Can I say, Amen and Hallelujah. Can I say, just the quicker you give up, the better this is going to be. The Bible talks about dying to yourself. That's what it means.
And if you've had that experience. If you're like me. And you've had that experience. You are powerfully equipped as a witness for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Because you're the evidence. Just tell your story.
People don't want proofs. They don't want arguments. They want flesh. So if that's you. If you're someone who's come to the end of themselves and been rescued by Jesus. You are awesome.
Please come and tell me about that afterwards. And take it with you when you go everywhere you go. And just be on the lookout.
Because that's what he wants to do for everybody. That's what he wants to do for everybody.
So the idea, the takeaway from the talk this morning is this. Stop it. Will you just stop it? Stop trying to fix it yourself.
Sit down at a well, if you can find one, and engage. Engage with Jesus. He's waiting for you. Just sitting there, send his disciples off for lunch, just waiting for you.
Because there's something he wants to talk to you about. Something he wants to give you. Something you need to know. Something that will transform your life and the life of your community.
Did you get that? You can't fix it for yourself. That's why he's called our saviour.
Friends the Lord be with you.
